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During the installation of Visual Studio 2015 Community on Windows 10 the following error occurred for me:

A Setup Package is either missing or damaged.

enter image description here

Since vcredist_x86.exe and vcredist_x64.exe files correspond to Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013, I provided a location to packages after downloading them (third option on the screenshot). After that the installation went smoothly.

So the question:

are Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013 required for installing of Visual Studio 2015, is there any prerequisites for installing of Visual Studio 2015 on Windows 10, may be i'm missing something obvious?

pnuts
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Vadim Gremyachev
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16 Answers16

20

I had the same problem with installing VS 2015 Community. In my case the solution was to download the offline installer (ISO image, ~3,7 GB), mount the image and run vs_community.exe with administrative rights.

Burhan
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ithn
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    Today we are in the office, installing from DVD's burned from ISO image, DVD's are fine but it seems this error message shows only when your account isn't Administrator account but you run it as another domain user with administrative rights. In the cases when you run the installer after log in to an Administrator account, it completes successfully. – Francisco Alvarado Aug 22 '16 at 20:41
  • Saw this issue today with Visual Studio Professional 2015; downloading the offline installer ISO (from my.visualstudio.com) resolved it. – Reign of Error Jun 05 '18 at 20:30
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    This was the solution that worked for me – Will Lacey Sep 27 '21 at 02:55
19

Just to say, it's now August 2016, and this problem is still alive and kicking (it wasn't just a problem with one specific build of VS2015).

For me, I ended up having to install VS2015 on a train, and using up my entire mobile phone's 2Gb monthly data allowance, as although it claimed only one package was corrupted, it ended up re-acquiring everything.

Oh, and then it got stuck whilst trying to install the packages. Giving up on the install, and rebooting my laptop actually got it started again.

So, short answer: the VS2015 installer still isn't particularly stable.

Mike Gledhill
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  • For VS2015 SP3 freezing, I opened Task Manager, and killed one of the install processes. The install then aborted. But then I rebooted my laptop, and it immediately continued again (without reacquiring everything) and continued normally. But, seriously... it's the most unstable Visual Studio installer ever.... – Mike Gledhill Aug 24 '16 at 07:21
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Run as administrator and just keep clicking download from internet. I had to click it 50 times or so and EVENTUALLY it completes. (5-7 clicks per package)

Clinton Ward
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7

I may have found the correct walkthrough to get this working.

This is from the page HERE and is not what I came up with myself. Though I did add the VC_redist x86/x64 downloads to the list.

Let me add that I started the update .exe file in run as administrator so you may want to as well.

I got it to work - when it asks you to locate "preparation.exe" or "kb2703187.msp":

1.Open Chrome NOT Internet Explorer - for some @#$*! reason IE doesn't work (at least for me). Though it worked for me in IE11 - Stealthrt

2.Download the file from one (or all) of the links below --> to a "known folder":

preparation.exe --> HERE

kb2703187.msp --> HERE

VC_redist.x64.exe --> HERE

VC_redist.x86.exe --> HERE

Now, go back to the installer and browse to the "known folder" to locate the file you just downloaded

Downloading these files and selecting it in the Please provide a location.. box worked fine for me. I had to reference all 4 files above in order to get it to install.

But I did end up missing some updates: enter image description here

StealthRT
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5

This was a problem with Visual Studio's web installer between mid-afternoon PST of Sep 4th through 11:30am on Sep 8th (also PST) which has now been fixed on our end.

Specifically, we were running a clean-up script on past pre-release web-installers for Visual Studio, but the script got too aggressive and deleted vcredist_x86.exe even though the RTM product still needed that particular package. Once we realized the error, we re-published and re-mapped that package so that web installs should now work correctly.

The other workarounds (download the ISO + install vcredist_x86.exe manually) should still be fine answers, but anybody else reading this now shouldn't need to worry about those workarounds.

And last, we're examining our internal policies and procedures to try and avoid this kind of broad mistake in the future.

EricKn, Visual Studio Engineering Manager

EricKn
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  • Same here 12/01/16 with 'packages\vs_professional\Preparation.exe'. Which is actually present, yet still fails when I manually point the installer at it. Yuck. – Alan B Jan 12 '16 at 11:19
  • @AlanB - the problem I referenced above was a point in time problem that shouldn't be happening any longer. When you find that setup asks you to find a file by name but won't accept the one you point it to, that means that it's a different version than your current installer is expecting. We do this so somebody can't slip in a malicious Preparation.exe. Are you online, and can you choose "get the file from the internet"? (The actual choice may be worded differently.) – EricKn Jan 12 '16 at 16:35
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    @EricKn OK but the sequence was: Downloaded full ISO off MSDN, mounted ISO as drive V:, ran the setup. So the PREPARATION.EXE was the one in the ISO. No way altered or corrupt. If you're saying that the EXE could legitimately have a newer online version than the one baked into the ISO then IMO that dialog referenced in the original post needs rewording to reflect that it's not an error in that particular case. Is there potentially an issue with running this from mounted ISO images? – Alan B Jan 13 '16 at 07:55
  • @AlanB - got it. Can you tell me which ISO image (Enterprise 2015 English, Community 2015 with Update 1 Spanish...)? I'd like to investigate b/c this should be a much bigger problem if it's the ISO image itself on MSDN. It's possible that this is a corrupted ISO due to your download. Did you compare the SHA-1 hash of the file to make sure it downloaded correctly? Hopefully you can find it on MSDN, but the site that has the info on vs.com is https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/downloads/visual-studio-2015-iso-sha1-vs.aspx. – EricKn Jan 14 '16 at 22:45
  • Also, I'm not saying there's a newer version of PREPARATION.EXE online. That should be correct and fine on the ISO image itself. – EricKn Jan 14 '16 at 22:45
  • @EricKN Your link there is broken - the ISO I have is via MSDN Subscriber Downloads and is 'en_visual_studio_professional_2015_with_update_1_x86_x64_dvd_7288633.iso' The build on MSDN at the minute is later so I assume the SHA1 will be different. I didn't compare checksum at the time however I assume it wouldn't have mounted if it was corrupt? – Alan B Jan 15 '16 at 09:58
  • @HeemanshuBhalla and sham - based on what I know, the various MSI and EXE packages are all web-accessible today. First, if you are seeing the same "setup package is missing or damaged" for a file other than vcredist_x86.exe, it's a different issue. Second, even if it's happening for this exact file, then it's likely that your network location is not able to download that file successfully. This feature is intended to guard users from installing a version of this file that is corrupted on download. – EricKn May 15 '16 at 23:46
  • Happening for me now. Going for the ISO option (at least the ISO option is there this time!) A while back, offline access needed running some command prompt stuff to get all the installers... ISO is the best option... Especially when I want to install on multiple devices – Lzh Jun 04 '16 at 08:44
  • @Mzn - we realized late Friday afternoon PST that Microsoft's download center was having issues serving up a sizable number of files, including those that VS install needs. From examining our telemetry, that outage started Friday around 8pm GMT and was resolved by 2am. At this point in time, VS web installs should be functioning correctly again. – EricKn Jun 05 '16 at 20:43
  • @Mzn - actually, the feature is working as expected. We call this the "prompt for source" dialog, and while we could make the text a bit more explicit, it is doing it's job. It is trying to say "we either couldn't get to the server or the file we got back was wrong, damaged or bad in some other way", and we're trying to give you the opportunity to locate the same file so we can continue. In many cases you won't know where it is, but there are definitely cases where a user will be able to find the file in question and continue. I'll file this as a request for a clearer explanation – EricKn Jun 09 '16 at 01:09
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    @Irrmich - as I said above, I believe this feature is currently working as expected. When you see this dialog, it means that your machine failed to download a file correctly. While it has been caused twice by server-side issues in the past year, the vast majority of the time, it is usually an issue on a local machine (or the network between Microsoft and a local machine). If you'd like some help figuring out what happened, please feel free to email me directly at eric.knox@microsoft.com and I'll tell you how to collect and share logs I can use to diagnose your issue. – EricKn Jul 07 '16 at 14:29
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    @AlexNguyen - to my knowledge, this issue is still resolved. If you're seeing this dialog currently, it means that our download + verify code is working as expected but somehow you're not getting the correct file on your machine. That could be caused by anything between Microsoft's download site and your computer. If you'd like some help, please email me directly and I can help you diagnose precisely which file is failing to download (eric.knox@microsoft.com) – EricKn Aug 25 '16 at 17:28
  • I switch to another account on my laptop then installing vs 2015 update 3 =>it's ok now ! thank god ^:)^ – Alex Nguyen Aug 29 '16 at 08:49
  • @nonsensickle - this dialog is a feature and is designed to protect VS from bad internet connections or even man in the middle attacks where something tries to substitute a different installer in underneath VS. So the fact that you see it when I believe Microsoft's download center is functioning likely means it's working as expected. I'm happy to help you if you contact me directly via my email above. – EricKn Sep 09 '16 at 20:28
  • @RambiDev - two things. 1 - please feel free to email me (my email is in a few answers above), and I'll help you directly. 2 - this is normally a feature to prevent VS from installing bad files via corrupted downloads or a man-in-the-middle attack. 99% of the time, seeing it means your machine got the wrong file due to a problem between your machine and our download location. There was one known four day period in 2015 when we broke our download location. Since then, I don't know of any relapses of that problem, but I'd be happy to see if you ran into one if you contact me directly. – EricKn Jan 08 '17 at 18:18
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    I figure it's just better to download the DVD image instead. they have all the files in there. – Glitch Apr 17 '19 at 05:58
  • I've just downloaded the DVD image and mounted it. This is NOT fixed. The GUI installer has the paths wrong for most of the packages. – IrishChieftain Jun 02 '21 at 14:46
  • Well, till date (2022 March 24), the error is still popping up! – opu 웃 Mar 24 '22 at 07:43
  • Here I am in 2023 and this is STILL an issue. Running the installation as administrator (I was already logged on as an administrator) solve the problem for me. – Samantha Jan 25 '23 at 13:48
3

I was having similar problems and the following solution worked for me:

Run the installer executable with administrator rights (right click on installer exe 'Run as administrator') and proceed with the installation as normal.

Joseph King
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3

I solved the specific issue of missing or corrupted redistributables by doing the following:

This got me past the missing or corrupted packages message.

Brad C
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erict
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2

i apologize up front: this is not going to directly answer the OP's question, but when i searched around for "a setup package is either missing or damaged" while trying to offline-install (from unpacked ISO) VS2105 on my (corporate, internet-starved) build server, there were lots of others with same problem with very little help, and this was the top 1 google hit for that dreaded error message...

here's the deal: i was setting up TFS build agent on corporate server with all kinds of security lock down (including access to internet) from an MSDN subsription VS2015w/U3 ISO (unpacked). ran installer - got the error. after rifling through not-so-helpful SO/MS Connect/etc postings, i was able to glean that the digital signatures on some of the sub-packages were failing validation.

if you know anything about PKIs, read this paragraph if you want, if not skip. there was mention that certain CRLs and CA chains were pushed out via Windows updates/patches. who knows if this server has been patched... it certainly could not do it through automatic win updates. in a nut shell, i needed some way to get those missing items so that the digital signature verification would pass. i thought to myself "why would it work on my local machine, because it is on the same patching schedule as the server (presumably, i don't know for sure)". then it occurred to me that one reason MS offers web installers is just this problem... it then occurred to me that they might have a "best effort" kind of strategy for resolving this kind of thing in their offline installer.

(preface: bear in mind that while this worked in a fairly common corporate set up, they're all different and this might not work for everyone)

what i needed was the ability to run the installer on the server, but somehow get it internet access. so i opened Fiddler, allowed other machines to connect to it, configured the server's internet connection settings >> LAN settings to use my machine as a proxy. first make sure that HTTPS is enabled in Fiddler, then open it up, turn in on, go back to your server (that you configured to proxy via your machines IP address and the port that Fiddler uses; default is 8888) and run the installer. you can actually watch the PKI activity in the request captured by Fiddler, among other http-based traffic). the key of this proxy approach is that the server can get what it need from the web, while all that traffic appears to be coming from your machine, from the network firewall's point of view.

anyhow, i hope this saves someone else the 2 days of pain it caused me.

isandburn
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I also had this problem. But I noticed that the problem occured only when I opened a new user ( not admin ). I made the user admin and it worked fine. You should try it, I think that is the sollution to your problem.

Hike Nalbandyan
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I was facing the same problem. First I tried the online installation and faced above problem, then I tried to install VS2015 from ISO but it was also giving an error saying "Product version which is higher than what you are trying to install is already installed in the device". I read many post on this but none of them had solved my issue. Finally I went to control panel and uninstalled a Visual studio Updater program. Then offline installation worked for me.

Pruthviraj
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I tried most of the items listed with VS 2013, VS 2015 and VS 2017 Community Edition, and all of them failed somewhere during the installation, or failed while installing Data Tools, or the Data Tools did not work correctly (SSIS VSTA Script Editor Not Displaying in VS2015). When I tried with VS 2017 Professional, the installation was seamless for Studio and for Data Tools, with Data Tools functioning correctly at the end.

Alan MacK
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Download the proper VS2015 iso file from here (in my case it was "Visual Studio Enterprise 2015 with Update 3"). Right-click on the downloaded iso file and select "Mount". Then on the VS2015 installer, when it asks you for the path of the package, refer to the mounted folder. Hopefully, that will solve your problem.

amirfg
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Perhaps a very stupid thing for me to do, but I had deleted the mounted drive after installing VS2015. Hence the installer was trying to access a non existing path when doing the modification. Just remounting the iso image made sure that the path got created again and I was able to proceed after that.

abhi
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I had the same issue with Visual Studio Express 2015, but was able to install after ran all the updates to Visual Studio Express 2012.

user1902679
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I have solved the issue just installed the missing setup manually. Track out which one is showing missing or damaged then search same one in the setup folder and manually install during that main installation. Note:- Don't cancel the main setup after mannual installation please select the Skip option and then continue.

Bikash Biswal
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I have window 7, downloaded Visual Studio Enterprise 2015 With Update 2 exe installer. It had the same issue as this post at beginning when running the installer as Administrator - "Run as administrator". It was installed fine second time by just double clicking on the installer - run as a user, and the installer prompted the user to enter administrator's credential, enter the credential, then installed successfully.

VS New User
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