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Recently I tried to download and install Visual Studio 2019 Community Edition on my PC. When I run the setup file it shows me the workloads to be selected. When I select my workloads and when I try to install there are two options available download all and install and install while downloading. There you will be shown the total space required; according to my understanding, I believe this is the disk space requirements.

But I couldn’t find the total size of the downloaded file. As I cannot afford much on download quota for my internet connection this month, I am looking to find out the size of the file which is getting downloaded.

Under installation locations tab, download cache shows as the place to keep the installation file. It shows as 3.65GB for now. Does this mean the installation files which are getting downloaded is 3.65GB of size and total space required is the disk space requirement?

Giacomo1968
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ChathurawinD
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1 Answers1

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Visual Studio 2019 doesn't have a developer edition. The editions are Community, Professional and Enterprise. I assume you are asking about the free Community edition.

All Visual Studio versions download a small loader of about 1.5 MB which downloads the rest. Then you may choose:

  • Download All: Will download the entire Visual Studio product and then install your choices. With a limited download quota, that's absolutely not the one for you.

  • Install while downloading: This will download only the options that you choose. That's the most economical choice for bandwidth.

The Total size is the real size that Visual Studio will take on the disk after installation. Installations of each chosen part will be downloaded, installed, and deleted after installation. You may assume that the bandwidth requirements will at most be of this size.

harrymc
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  • @WindChath - The size of the download is entirely based on which features you install. The installer indicates the size of the download. How an ISO is built based on those options you select is well documented. – Ramhound Dec 21 '20 at 18:53
  • @Ramhound: The options dictate indeed the size of the download, but it's downloaded in pieces, where each option is one or more separate installation(s) that is downloaded and installed one after the other. (Not as one ISO.) – harrymc Dec 21 '20 at 19:03
  • That doesn't make sense. Have you downloaded Visual Studio before? **I have** – Ramhound Dec 21 '20 at 22:07
  • @Ramhound: You're serious? Have you never pressed Details while VS was installing? You really think Microsoft creates an ISO per each user and his specific combination of options? – harrymc Dec 22 '20 at 09:16
  • The installer is designed to create an ISO to contain only the components you want. This is different from the ISO containing everything that was done with versions from before 2015. The creation of the ISO doesn't happen unless you run the appropriate command. – Ramhound Dec 22 '20 at 16:49