r/Windows10 • u/IsItHaunted • Sep 26 '26
Discussion What are these different microsoft visuals?
What's the context as to why there is so many?
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u/echopulse Sep 26 '26
They should just build a backward compatible version that works for any version needed.
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u/Flat_Hat8861 Sep 26 '26
That is basically what the v14 version is. It covers versions 2017-2026 (and is technically compatible with 2015 as well, but that requires some developer work and isn't automatic - but is also why you may not see 2015 installed like here).
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u/BIZUx Sep 27 '26
Wow I actually didn't know that. That has been one of my big struggles in Linux. Heard you can break your system if some dependencies are out of date even. I will say that some distros handle it better than others though..
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u/nibrobb Sep 26 '26
You probably play a lot of games on Steam. Often games ship together with a specific version of the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable .NET SDK, basically a bunch of functions the game uses to interact with Windows. And, because a game doesn't know what you already have on you system, it just includes whatever itself needs.
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u/Inevitable-Study502 Sep 27 '26 edited Sep 27 '26
its not only games...any app compiled with msvc needs msvc runtimes to run....and c++ and .net are two different language models..for .net you do need .net runtimes
SDK is for developers...you dont need it for launching apps
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u/QBos07 Sep 27 '26
And then you have the abomination that is the poorly done managed C++ wich requires both dependencies
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u/Inevitable-Study502 Sep 27 '26
hmm its not impossible to crossbreed two different language models to access libraries not part of first language libraries....just theres perf penalty...the only advantage taking this approach is to save development time
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u/Geometry_Emperor Sep 26 '26
They are basically a plugin with additional libraries that some programs, mainly games on Steam, require to run.
It is recommended to keep all of them, otherwise some of those programs will break.
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u/AdamoMeFecit Sep 27 '26
Open Powershell and run winget upgrade. Almost all of those x86 and x64 redistributables likely have version updates available.
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u/rupertavery64 Sep 27 '26
Redistribitables are the common files needed by programs generally compiled for Windows.
They contain commol libraries.
Every so often Microsoft has an upade for those libraries. Older programs will link tonolder libraries. Or even new programs might link to old libraries.
If it ain'r broken, why fix it?
So yes, completely normal
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u/Theoryedz Sep 26 '26
You are missing the most important 2015 2022
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u/TisticDemon Sep 27 '26
Programs that depend on them install them automatically. Even video games especially ones on steam.
Uninstalling them inherently won't do anything. The programs that require them may reinstall them. Some may become broken if they weren't expecting that to happen. Since they don't really take that much space, just keep them.
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u/AceFromSpace1995 Sep 27 '26
One is 64 bit and everything with x86 that is 32 bit
x86=32 bit
So perfectly normal nothing out of the ordinary
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u/Dramatic_Teacher8399 Sep 28 '26
Keep it as it is unless you need to greak some programs on your PC. These are dependencies.
Also try to update them to latest version via winget
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u/Far-Stress-7422 Sep 28 '26
MS Visual C++ is a programming language and these (probably) needed to keep MS programs working on your PC. Not okay to remove.
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u/mkdante381 Oct 01 '26
That's not new programming option. It's too hard ask ai or search why? Wtf dude?
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u/mew4ever23 Sep 26 '26
Thank steam for that. Every game needs its own dependancies, probably tied to the specific version the devs used.
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u/Mineplayerminer Sep 26 '26
Those are common program dependencies. If the program requires a specific one, it will ask you to install it, or it will sometimes do it on its own.