Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 did NOT update Microsoft_VC80 redistributable. by Jiaquan

Check out Nikola Dudar's WebLog "A solution to two references to different versions of CRT, MFC, ATL in one application manifest file" http://blogs.msdn.com/nikolad/archive/2007/03/29/a-solution-to-two-references-to-different-versions-of-crt-mfc-atl-in-one-application-manifest-file.aspx

Also, after you install Windows Vista SDK, apply SP1 again since Windows Vista SDK will install the RTM version of merge modules.

Hi,

Thank you for reporting this issue. VS2005 SP1 attempts to update all VC++ redistributable MSMs in \Program Files\Common Files\Merge Modules. However it may fail to do so if timestamp of MSM files have been changed. For example, if you have used Orca to view content of RTM version of MSMs, Orca can modify timestamp of MSM when it opens it, even when no edits are made to content. Alternatively, if VS2005 SP1 installer has failed for another reason, it may never reached a point when it installs VC MSMs files. Check installation log for SP1 and repeat install. Uninstalling VS2005 SP1, repairing or re-installing VS2005 and then installing VS2005 SP1 again fixes all problems including non updated MSMs.

Thanks,
Nikola Dudar
Visual C++ Team

It seems like the Visual Studio 2005 SP1 installation will not overwrite or install newer VC80 Merge modules unless none exist in the target directory, therefore to resolve this problem we performed the following steps:

1. Delete the old VC80 Merge Modules from C:\Program Files\Common Files\Merge Modules

    ie: Microsoft_VC80_ATL_x86.msm, Microsoft_VC80_CRT_x86.msn

2. Reinstall SP1 for Visual Studio .NET 2005.

1) Uninstall/reinstall VS2005 and SP1. The correct MSMs are in SP1. This leads to workaround 2.

2) This is very ugly but faster than reinstalling probably. I don't know if there are legal issues with this solution.

a) Download SP1 from the MS website.
b) Extract the MSP from the downloaded EXE by running VS80sp1-KB926601-X86-ENU.exe /extract c:\temp\vs2005sp1

c) Download MsiX from http://blogs.msdn.com/heaths/archive/2006/04/07/571138.aspx

d) MsiX will let you extract the files contained in an MSP. Run MsiX with:

MsiX.exe c:\temp\vs2005sp1\VS80sp1-KB926601-X86-ENU.msp /out c:\temp\vs2005sp1 /ext

e) In c:\temp\vs2005sp1 you should see a file called PCW_CAB_VS_10260.cab.

f) Open this CAB file with WinZIP. You should see a list of all the files contained inside. For the MSM's (I was interested in MFC and CRT release versions only, but I guess it should work for others) look for files called FL_Microsoft_VC80_xxxxxxxx. Scan through the file list and see the file you're interested in. Extract using WinZIP this file and rename to the filename from %Common Files%\Merge Modules.

g) Repeat for all MSMs you're interested in, and make sure to copy the Policy MSMs from FL_policy_8_0_xxxxx. Replace MSMs created this way into the standard location.

h) Using this procedure on MSMs that were correctly installed when installing SP1 (so I had 8.0.50727.762 MSMs already installed) and comparing the two results shows they are identical. It is an assumption that the other MSMs work the same way.

Thanks to all. I was awaiting Microsoft to release VS2005 with SP1 as one single installation like the way they did with Windows, which is unlikely to happen. I am able to obtain the new merge modules by following the steps in David Colombo's workaround, and it seems to be the right way to go. I am afraid of vonsrdmn's workaround would fall into the category of reverse engineering.

Is anyone from Microsoft paying attention to this thread? If Microsoft decide not to release VS2005 with SP1 in one package on MSDN Subscriber Downloads, I would like to request Microsoft to create an KB article to confirm this is the correct way to obtain the merge modules, or create a package so that we can run to obtain the merge modules.

Thanks.

- Jiaquan Ma