Unable to uninstall, modifiy or repair visual studio 2015

Question

I didn't not install Visual Studio 2015 to the C: (it's my ssd drive and its pretty small). I choose to install VS2015 to G: and G drive has died and most of the files do not exist, such as:

G:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0*

I would like to reinstall, but at this point, when I run the uninstaller, I am unable to repair, modify or uninstall VS2015, it fails with error:

"Cannot continue because some of the required components failed."

I am unable to install VS again, because of the same errors. I looked at a force uninstall, but the files do not exists to force the uninstall.

I really don't want to reinstall windows10. Any other ideas?

Answer 1

I had met with the same problem, while I found the solution after 1 day of research.

If you are seeing the fatal error for Built Tools x86. that's where I stuck with. First of all, remember your previous version of Visual Studio Installed in your PC. And search for online to download the build tools for the specific version of Visual Studio. Secondly, install the same and try to uninstall VS2015 with force command in an Admin privileged Cmd prompt. vs_enterprise.exe /uninstall /force

You could find the above file in my case 'vs_enterprise.exe' from the package cache under ProgramData/PackageCache and respective package version number which you need to explore online. If you couldn't find the above simply uninstall vs2015 from Program and features under Control Panel.

Answer 2

In my scenario, I had just performed a user migration from one PC to an AWS instance and was not able to use VS 2015 Enterprise edition upon migration. I attempted to run a repair from "programs and features", run setup.exe from the ISO mounted to a drive on windows and even tried to run it from a disk and I couldn't get anything to run. What I had found was a reg key that led me to an idea of how to repair VS from an internal installer. The reg key that I found was:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall{4983E758-4064-3D74-BB77-75C3F86C34B3}

which provided me with an install source for the currently installed version of visual studio. Within this registry key I found the "InstallSource" portion and followed it's location to other installers and uninstallers for Visual studio and other programs found at this location:

C:\ProgramData\Package Cache{14D1CABE-2B5A-3AED-B3A7-42315D062965}v14.0.23107\packages\enterprisecore

From here I went through each of the folders with a listing for v14.0...etc and was able to find the location for the vs_enterprisecore windows installer. From here I right-clicked the installer and ran a repair(you can choose to install, uninstall, or repair). vs_enterprisecore functions

This allowed me to repair visual studio and inevitably re-update my licensing information on visual studio. Prior to doing this I was receiving a dialog to sign in and that my license was invalid no matter how many attempts I made at logging in with my enterprise issued MSDN account. As you can see below my VS2015 is operational again with Enterprise 2015 setup and is able to check for an updated key once again! This took alot of work, spent at least 8-12 hours working on this to avoid a complete re-image! I hope this helps someone later on down the road!

Visual Studio (Repaired)

Answer 3

I ended up just reinstalling windows, bummer.

Answer 4

You may have to remove any trace of what is left of it yourself. Even though the files of the installation are gone, the registry entries will still be lingering. You could try CCleaner to clean the registry. Typically when there isn't anything left and you try to uninstall from 'Programs and Features', Windows will ask you if you want to remove it from that list.

You can also use Revo, it has a 30 day trial period. CCleaner used to be free and you can still get the free version or a trial I believe.

Edit:

There are also some free ones that attempt to scan for leftovers:

IoBit Uninstaller, also at: Portable Apps

GeekUninstaller - Portable

Wise Program Uninstaller and Wise Registery Cleaner, - Portable Versions: Downloads Page