back to article Trying and failing to update Visual Studio? You aren't alone

Microsoft Visual Studio appears to be having a bad Wednesday with users of the development suite forced to jump into Microsoft's feedback forum to complain about prolonged problems with the software's installer. The issue manifests itself when the installer attempts to pull files from wherever Microsoft has stashed them. …

  1. DJV Silver badge

    "continuously improving the Visual Studio update experience"

    "We are continuously fucking up the Visual Studio update experience so that it's as buggy and useless as possible."

    FTFY

    1. Warm Braw

      Re: "continuously improving the Visual Studio update experience"

      I was similarly going to suggest that perhaps if they left it alone it might have a chance to finish.

  2. CommonBloke
    IT Angle

    How to recover after uninstalling

    Why, you just install from the offline backup installer you have!

    ...

    That's no longer a thing? The installer is just a 500kb package that downloads the whole actual program? Oh... Well, good luck.

    1. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: How to recover after uninstalling

      Switch to a Azure DevOps Services subscription...

      I suspect the announcement was in the (small print) footnotes of some MS press release...

  3. Sloth77

    Yep, just uninstalled after naively assuming that the issue must be at my end.

    When will I ever learn.....

  4. Howard Sway Silver badge
    Facepalm

    when you return, all of your installations will have been updated with the latest goodness

    They will never learn.

    Ever.

  5. martinusher Silver badge

    Constantly updating tools is a developer curse

    I don't know an easy way to get it into programmers' heads that you just don't need to update toolsets every five minutes. If a compiler (say) worked last week on this project then it will work the same this week and a year into the future. If you work on embedded projects then you'll learn that a stable toolset is as essential as a stable source archive if you want to rebuild a firmware version to, say, fix a customer bug. You don't keep using 'the latest' because that may well introduce new bugs (and if the product is certified, as a lot of industrial and medical equipment is, you face a lengthy certification cycle).

    In every company I've worked software development has been done by two groups, firmware and applications. The applications people typically work in a Windows environment and are characterized by huge, buggy, applications, constant schedule slips and a chronic inability to deal with trivial problems like communication errors. There's usually at least twice as many applications programmers as firmware engineers, often more, and they're always making a lot of noise about how complicated everything is. The firmware group aren't regarded as real programmers so they're not consulted about changes to product features, they're just left to work around whatever the applications group is or isn't doing (but as the applications group is invariably chronically behind schedule it gives them plenty of time to work our their own diagnostics).

    You really don't have to use the latest and greatest features to make a decent product. Try it.

    1. Bryan W
      FAIL

      Re: Constantly updating tools is a developer curse

      Didn't even know there was an update. I update once every few months when I want an excuse to get paid to d#$& around and watch a progress bar while sh$# posting on Reddit. I waited until a month ago to even move to VS2022, and even then only because my company insisted. I still have VS2019 installed as a backup.

      So whoever these ppl who got "screwed" by this update are, they aren't like me or anyone I know or work with, and in my whole hearted opinion they aren't actual programmers. They are probably JavaScript kiddies gluing together node.js packages who THINK they're developers and got mad because their text file colorizer "got broke by stoopid Microsuck".

  6. AndrueC Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Sounds like the normal VS experience. Long waits with little information then abject failure. It's a powerful tool but Lordy the experience of using it sucks. There's times I think it's been designed to put obstacles in my way. I actually attribute it as the reason for me finally starting the retirement process.

    What a claim to fame for an IDE - it's driven a 30-year software developer into retirement.

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      This. I'm close to retirement age and cannot wait to leave the entire shit world of MS.

      Oh wait, Azure is now everywhere on the web. Well damn. :(

  7. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

    Roll Back

    Microsoft has never been good at building this concept into their products.

    This will get worse when the attitude will be "you can only use our latest version".

  8. ecofeco Silver badge

    Same ol same ol

    I wonder if I will live long enough to see MS finally abandoned and recognized for the shite it actually is?

    Naw, too much Stockholm Syndrome out there.

  9. Richard Payne

    Seems to be fixed now - UK 08:00 BST

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