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MSVC Manifest Archive

This repository archives the Microsoft Visual Studio installer manifest, allowing a user to install old versions of visual studio, or to download old versions of the Windows SDK for diffing purposes.

This repository has one branch per MSVC version:

  • release-17 tracks Visual Studio 2022.
  • pre-17 tracks Visual Studio 2022 preview.
  • release-16 tracks Visual Studio 2019.
  • pre-16 tracks Visual Studio 2019 Preview (note - this version is currently dead. The manifest is currently located on a microsoft-internal domain).
  • release-15 tracks Visual Studio 2017.
  • pre-15 tracks Visual Studio 2017 preview.

How it works

Each branch has two files:

  • channel.json is the top-level descriptor used by the Visual Studio installer. It describes the different editions of Visual Studio that can be installed for this release, the current version, and most importantly, a link to a vsman, short for Visual Studio Manifest.
  • manifest.json is that vsman file, which is a manifest giving instructions on how to download and install each of the individual components that make up a visual studio installation.

Each of those files is provided in two flavours:

  • The raw_ file is the file as it was downloaded by the microsoft server. This may be necessary for some use-cases involving verifying the signatures of the manifests.
  • The unprefixed files are formatted using jq for easy diffing and viewing.