How to delete Microsoft Visual C++ Build Tools 2015

Overview

This provides with tools that allow you to build C and C++ libraries and applications targeting Windows desktop. They are the same tools that you find in Visual Studio 2015 if you removed the IDE.

Options

The default installation also installs Windows 8.1 SDK and MSBuild. There is a /Full option that installs all optional features, and /InstallSelectableItems 'item1;item2;itemN' option for selecting optional features. The current optional features are:

1. Win81SDK_CppBuildSKUV1 - Windows 8.1 SDK
2. Win10SDK_VisibleV1 - Windows 10 SDK
3. VisualCppBuildTools_ATLMFC_SDK - ATL and MFC
4. VisualCppBuildTools_NETFX_SDK - .NET SDK

These option ids can change in the future, and you need to check the installation logs to find new ids.

Example:

choco install microsoft-visual-cpp-build-tools --installargs "/InstallSelectableItems 'Win81SDK_CppBuildSKUV1;Win10SDK_VisibleV1;VisualCppBuildTools_NETFX_SDK'"`

If you're using OneGet/PackageManagement, try this instead:

Install-Package -Name visual-cpp-build-tools -ProviderName chocolateyget -Force -AdditionalArguments @'
--installargs "/InstallSelectableItems 'Win81SDK_CppBuildSKUV1;Win10SDK_VisibleV1;VisualCppBuildTools_NETFX_SDK'"
'@

Notes

This will install MSBuild as well, so there's no need to install the Microsoft Build Tools 2015 separately. This means you get C# compiler and interpreter as well as Visual Basic compiler.