While doing some house cleaning on my system I noticed there were several instances of Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable installed on my computer according to Control Panel/Programs and Features. The latest is version 2012 installed on 9/28/2016. The others go way back to version 2005 installed on 5/06/2005!
Can all of the older ones be safely uninstalled via Programs and Features?
Thank you.
Do you play games on your PC, in particular Steam games? It's common for developers to bundle their own particular version of these distributions because their games were made for that particular version of c++.
Not only Games require older versions, I would leave them alone, could cause problems for programs that need a specific version.
Thank you.
No I don't play any games other than Bridge Baron.
Don't uninstall any of the different instances of Visual C++ Redists. You need them all as none of them are compatible with each other. If a game or application has been compiled against (created using) VS C++ v2008, then that is the only redistributable package that will work for that particular application.
Even both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the packages might be required for some applications though the version numbers are the same. 32- and 64-bit are not compatible.
Thanks to all who replied. I have marked this as 'solved' and will just leave them alone.
Yes, leave them alone! Other programs e.g. Lightroom also use these libraries.
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