Remove Older Vusual Studio Folders

Question

_{Tuesday, June 6, 2017 8:03 PM}

Some times I need to look at an include (.h) file. I only want the one that relates to the latest windows version.

I've convinced myself that I can delete:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0

C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1

Everything in: 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Include\

     except 10.0.14393.0

1) Do you agree with that?

I'm less sure about the following:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs

2) Do you agree that these are replaced with the Window Kits files so they can be delete?

I also have a folder Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0

and

Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0

and

Microsoft Visual Studio

3) I assume these are replaced with Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0 which is the highest I have. Agree?

This 14.0 is confusing since I have Microsoft Visual Studio Enterprise 2015 (version 4.7.02046)

I'd really would like to get rid of unneeded files so I'd appreciate any helpful comments.

All replies (4)

_{Tuesday, June 6, 2017 10:06 PM ✅Answered}

There is no correspondence of version number to the year in the title of Visual Studio.

As for deleting folders, I suggest spending your time on more productive quandaries. If you must delete a folder, first check in "Programs and Features" and if there is an entry there for the product then uninstall it that way. For example, I have multiple versions of "Microsoft Software Development Kit". I should use one of the entries to remove that version instead of deleting a folder for it.

Sam Hobbs
SimpleSamples.Info

_{Thursday, June 8, 2017 3:23 AM ✅Answered | 1 vote}

Hi scholar,

Welcome to MSDN forum.

>>1) Do you agree with that?

The location of your Win8 SDK(Win8.1 SDK) install – by default it is %PROGRAMFILES%\Windows Kits\8.0\8.1), The following table shows the contents of the subfolders in the installation.

If you don’t have win8/8.1 SDK installed, you could delete it. However, the folder will created automatically when you repair visual studio.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Include\ except 10.0.14393.0, \Include\ folder include Windows SDK headers, which also depends on what SDK you have installed.

>>2) Do you agree that these are replaced with the Window Kits files so they can be delete?

No, many other component will be installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs, like the component of typescript, Silverlight, Azure……. It also contains ildasm tool, you could also have a look at the blog. So, I think you couldn’t delete it.

>>3) I assume these are replaced with Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0 which is the highest I have. Agree?

Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0 is the folder for visual studio 2013, Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0 is for visual studio 2012 and Microsoft Visual Studio is for visual studio 2017. After you install visual studio, these folders will be created by default. These folders also contain the other components like visual c++ redistributable, for example, visual c++ 2013 redistributable components is in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\VC\redist. So, you can’t delete them.

Best regards,

Joyce

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_{Thursday, June 8, 2017 4:45 PM | 1 vote}

Joyce,

I just want to add one thing in case it changes anything you wrote:

 I'm only interested in writing for the latest VS and want to never find any info that is obsolete. I'm sure I don't keep current on what MS is leaving behind and don't want some day to find and use some windows structure, for example, that is obsolete.

This has nothing to do with saving disk space. This is just a hobby with me so I don't read enough to know what is current. Silverscript for example; if that is dying I'd rather not someday find something I think would be nice to play with. Would rather not have the sdk show up in a search.

Thanks for the info.

_{Saturday, December 15, 2018 5:59 PM}

Thanks Joyce, for a thorough and helpful answer. The other "answer" is terse and only mildly  helpful.