Why am I getting an "invalid path error" when trying to install VS on a thumb drive?

Hi Tianyu,

I'm presently very satisfied with VSC (Visual Studio Code for my Python coding), but from what I've read, VSC doesn't have the robust support for Visual Basic that VS (Visual Studio) appears to have. So I was looking for an IDE for VB without eating up 7 GB (or more?) of my SSD which is why I was hoping to run VS from a thumb drive. From your reply, I apparently can't do that (though DeepSeek said otherwise*), but if you have another suggestion, I'd appreciate it.

Dan

• https://chat.deepseek.com/a/chat/s/e6876263-3be7-4926-9b5c-7c22aa48e839

Hi Dan,

It’s true that installing Visual Studio takes more space(GB).

If you only consider saving space, then you may get more issues in the future. For example, you know, the speed of the SSD(read and write) is not the same to the thumb drive. SSD is faster, if installing VS into a thumb drive, compiling, debugging, and responding will delay.

You may also get problems about failing to uninstall VS if some files are missing or corrupted in SSD <-> thumb drive.

If some configurations wrongly set, VS may fail to start.

Also, for long-term usage, apparently, we should install tools in SSD, instead of installing it in thumb drive.

If you just want to use VS shortly, uninstalling it later should be acceptable.

Think differently, from another point, VS IDE is powerful enough, why we still use VS Code? Yes, more flexibility, size smaller, but with some features missing.

So, is there 1% possibility that we can install the Visual Studio into the thumb drive? I guess so, by using some methods, let VS recognize that the thumb drive is not a thumb drive. About the methods, you may need to use some Windows OS tools, like mklink(mklink /d "C:\XXXXX" "G:\XXXXX\"). I suggest you double confirm with Windows Team before you decide to use this tool to create a directory symbolic link.

Deploying a VM and installing VS on it then use it, should be another workaround.

BTW, Visual Studio cannot be fully installed on another drive. Some files are needed to be installed on C(system) drive. See this ticket: Install everything of VS on another drive which I reported before for more details.

Kind regards,

Tianyu

Hi Tianyu,

Once again, I appreciate your reply and suggested options.

I am more than willing to sacrifice the performance of running VS from a thumb drive instead of the traditional way of running it from my SSD. I am looking for a way to learn VB and am not in a production environment so the savings in time is of no value to me. I've never used the mklink command and have limited dealings using the Windows Sandbox, so the suggestions you made excite me to try them and follow up on the challenges they will undoubtedly present to me. Making my way through such a project is always the best way to learn.

I'm sure MS has their reasons for not making VS portable, and you've made it clear that I should not pursue the thumb drive approach, so thank you for encouraging me not to pursue that route.

With much appreciation for your guidance,
Dan