Microsoft Visual Studio to Obtain Updates via Microsoft Update from August

TapTechNews, Jun 8. A notice from Microsoft Developer Community reveals that starting from August, Visual Studio will obtain security updates via Microsoft Update (MU).

This system is designed to operate non-intrusively in the background. This means that any PC that chooses to 'Receive updates for other Microsoft products' will automatically receive and install Visual Studio updates. It is highly recommended that you enable this feature as it is the easiest way to keep your Visual Studio safe and updated.

Microsoft stated that this feature only applies to supported editions and LTSC versions of Visual Studio 2022, Visual Studio 2019, and Visual Studio 2017, and not to Visual Studio previews.

Enable Automatic Update

To enable this function, you need to open Windows Update, select 'Advanced Options', and then enable the 'Receive updates for other Microsoft products' option (as shown in the figure below of TapTechNews).

Disable Automatic Update

If you have already enabled 'Receive updates for other Microsoft products' but do not want to receive Visual Studio updates through this channel, you can opt out of the update and exclude Visual Studio updates from MU by manually configuring the following registry item:

HKLM\\Software\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Visual Studio\\Setup\\VSthroughMUUpdatesOptOut (REG_DWORD) = 1

Preview Experience in June and July

In order to allow users to experience this function before the official release in August, Microsoft will also provide Visual Studio update packages through system updates in June and July.

However, just like the above, to join this experience channel, you also need to manually configure the registry and view Visual Studio updates through MU:

HKLM\\Software\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Visual Studio\\Setup\\PreviewAutomaticUpdates (REG_DWORD) = 1