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What's the deal with Visual Studio 2012 bloat?

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+Majesticmerc MVC

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So it goes like this. At work we have a Ruby script that allows us to create a project file for a project that works with any version of Visual Studio between 2003 and 2010. For example, I could run the command...

ruby ProjectFileConverter.rb --dir="C:\Dev\MyProject" --in=2005 --out=2010

... and it would find the Visual Studio 2005 project file(s) and create corresponding Visual Studio 2010 files. Since the de-facto Visual Studio install at work is VS2008 abd we skipped 2010m we are planning to migrate straight to 2012. I was asked to update the script to create VS2012 files. Easy enough.

To test my changes, I had to install a copy of the VS2012 trial. Now though, since we don't have any licenses for 2012 yet, and the trial has expired, I've chosen to remove 2012 completely. The thing is, I'm STILL trying to do it! I uninstalled VS2012 itself easy enough, but it installed SO. MUCH. EXTRA. STUFF. I count no less than THIRTY FIVE extra products installed. Silverlight, SQL this, SQL that, ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, the list goes on, and on, and on. And does VS2012 uninstall them all for you automatically? Of course not!

Absolutely ridiculous.

</rant>

(I'm not expecting any help or anything, just needed to get it off my chest)

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Grand Master

+Majesticmerc MVC

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About half way through, this is still what's left (Except VirtualCloneDrive obviously):

post-125341-0-28920900-1352845103.png

Can you not choose the technologies that you install during the setup? I'm sure there's a screen for it.

No :( It just asked me to close down Visual Studio 2008 (which was weird), but then it just uninstalled Visual Studio itself. All the dependencies (or some of them anyway) remained :(

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+LogicalApex MVC

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This has always been the case with Visual Studio and you always need to read the Release Notes for what to do when it came time to tear it down.

The best I could easily find for you references the BETA so it seems MS has slacked and isn't keeping this data refreshed as they should.

Visual Studio 2012 Tear Down

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Mr. Gibs

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STILL trying to do it! I uninstalled VS2012 itself easy enough, but it installed SO. MUCH. EXTRA. STUFF. I count no less than THIRTY FIVE extra products installed. Silverlight, SQL this, SQL that, ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, the list goes on, and on, and on. And does VS2012 uninstall them all for you automatically? Of course not!

Lol holy **** :| I knew VS came with a lot of stuff but I figured it would come with a single uninstaller.

Also, I could be wrong since it's been a while, but don't you get the option of installing all those extras?

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+LogicalApex MVC

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Thanks! Still though, I'm disappointed that there wasn't a screen in the uninstaller to do it for us :(

Agreed. I have always hated this about VS installs. As not only do they lay this long list of stuff to remove they also make it even more annoying in that the order is also important. The whole purpose of an uninstaller is to return the machine to the state prior to the install, but I guess MS never got that memo :angry:

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Eric Veteran

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There's a command line option to uninstall the supporting packages. You can just download the web installer and run it with the options "/uninstall /force"

Every version other than Express should display a page during installation that lets you select which components you want.

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+Majesticmerc MVC

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Lol holy **** :| I knew VS came with a lot of stuff but I figured it would come with a single uninstaller.

Also, I could be wrong since it's been a while, but don't you get the option of installing all those extras?

There's a command line option to uninstall the supporting packages. You can just download the web installer and run it with the options "/uninstall /force"

Every version other than Express should display a page during installation that lets you select which components you want.

There was a screen during the install for selecting packages, but most of these packages weren't available to select, they got installed "silently" with other parts of the install.

The thing is, I get why these things don't get automatically uninstalled, because other applications might use them (SQL Express for instance, of the Silverlight SDK), but at the same time VS should at least keep track of what it installed and offer the option to uninstall them. Even if they're not selected by default.

(Happy Birthday GreyWolf!)

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