If you’re running Windows, you already know the importance of various runtimes that allow apps to perform properly. Among all the runtimes, the Visual C++ runtimes are the most troublesome as they come up in a large number. They’re more than enough to confuse any Windows users. The most horrible part is, without them, you may not be able to even run your favorite music player or play the game! Even drivers may depend on them in cases.

Today, let’s take a look how to get all the Visual C++ runtimes in a single swoop.

PowerShell module

PowerShell is one of the most powerful components of Windows that can perform a number of tasks. In general, PowerShell is the “shell” of Windows, like “bash” or “fish” on Linux. Today, we’ll be using a nice PowerShell module that will download and install all the latest Visual C++ runtimes.

Note that the tool only downloads & installs runtimes that Microsoft supports currently. If you’re in need of unsupported Visual C++ redistributable packages, you have to use them at your own risk. As they’re unsupported, less and less programs use them. So, you should be good to go.

Preparing PowerShell

Let’s start PowerShell with administrative privilege. Press “Win + X” and select “Windows PowerShell (Admin)”.

Run the following command –

Get-ExecutionPolicy

In general, the result should be “Restricted”. We have to switch it to “Unrestricted” so that PowerShell runs the module. Run the following command –

Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

Verify the result –

Get-ExecutionPolicy

Downloading VcRedist

The name of the module is “VcRedist”. You can find out the detailed guide of the tool here. In most case, the following procedure of downloading and installing the redistributable packages are enough. For further deployment tutorial like importing into MDT, follow the VcRedist guide.

It’s time to install the module. Run the following commands –

Install-Module -Name VcRedist

# Update the module
Install-Module -Name VcRedist -Force

If you prefer to install the module manually, then follow this guide.

Import the module –

Import-Module -Name VcRedist

Using VcRedist

You can find out all the available Visual C++ redistributable packages by running the following command –

Get-VcList -Export All

Time to download the Visual C++ runtime packages. Run the following commands –

New-Item C:\Temp\VcRedist -ItemType Directory
Get-VcList | Get-VcRedist -Path C:\Temp\VcRedist

This will create a folder “C:\ Temp\VcRedist” where all the packages the module will download and save. Depending on your internet speed and other factors, this may take a while. Be patient.

Download complete? Install them right away! Run the following command –

Get-VcList | Install-VcRedist -Path C:\Temp\VcRedist

Check out the result of installation –

Voila! Your apps should now run perfectly.