vcredist_x86.exe runs very slowly when already installed

[Eric Smith]

In order to install the side-by-side CRT, I'm using vcredist_x86.exe from
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio
8\SDK\v2.0\BootStrapper\Packages\vcredist_x86. This is from Visual Studio
2005 SP1.

On a machine where vcredist_x86.exe hasn't previously been run, it runs
reasonably fast, finishing in less than a minute. If vcredist_x86.exe HAS
been run, then it takes about three minutes, with most of that time
displaying an empty progress bar. That seems like a disproporionate amount of
time.

I'm not sure if a re-install causes any existing CRT dlls to be uninstalled
first, and then installed (which could possibly explain how a process that
ultimately doesn't need to do anything could take longer)? Even so, that
seems really slow.

I've duplicated this behavior on several machines. I've also done a run with
verbose logging turned on:

vcredist_x86.exe /q:a /c:"msiexec /i vcredist.msi /qn /l*v
$TEMP\vcredist_x86.log"

This produced a log file of about 19 MB, with lots of GUID-heavy output that
I'm not easily able to interpret.

I've been under the impression that running vcredist_x86.exe multiple times
is harmless. While that seems to be true in terms of the ultimate state of
the machine, it is painfully slow. I could try to detect that the CRT is
already installed within my install script, and do nothing if it is, but I'd
rather minimize complexity by just running the redistributable install every
time.

Has anyone else encountered this? If so what do you do about it?

Thanks,
Eric

[Ajay Kalra]

We re-ran the vcredist_x86 all the time and had no problems. There was no
delay that we encountered after the first installation. There must be
something different about the install or possibly the permissions are
causing some problems.

---
Ajay

Post by Eric Smith
In order to install the side-by-side CRT, I'm using vcredist_x86.exe from
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio
8\SDK\v2.0\BootStrapper\Packages\vcredist_x86. This is from Visual Studio
2005 SP1.
On a machine where vcredist_x86.exe hasn't previously been run, it runs
reasonably fast, finishing in less than a minute. If vcredist_x86.exe HAS
been run, then it takes about three minutes, with most of that time
displaying an empty progress bar. That seems like a disproporionate amount of
time.
I'm not sure if a re-install causes any existing CRT dlls to be uninstalled
first, and then installed (which could possibly explain how a process that
ultimately doesn't need to do anything could take longer)? Even so, that
seems really slow.
I've duplicated this behavior on several machines. I've also done a run with
vcredist_x86.exe /q:a /c:"msiexec /i vcredist.msi /qn /l*v
$TEMP\vcredist_x86.log"
This produced a log file of about 19 MB, with lots of GUID-heavy output that
I'm not easily able to interpret.
I've been under the impression that running vcredist_x86.exe multiple times
is harmless. While that seems to be true in terms of the ultimate state of
the machine, it is painfully slow. I could try to detect that the CRT is
already installed within my install script, and do nothing if it is, but I'd
rather minimize complexity by just running the redistributable install every
time.
Has anyone else encountered this? If so what do you do about it?
Thanks,
Eric

[z***@gmail.com]

I'm having the same problems. Any solution found since you posted
this?
Our application takes 1 minute to install, followed by a long delay
showing an empty progress bar
when the installer runs the vcredist installation at the end.

[Eric Smith]

I haven't found an explanation for it. I decided to check for the existence
of one of the DLLs and skip the install if it is there. I did notice that
uninstalling is also really slow, so maybe the install really does do an
uninstall first. Otherwise I'm still pretty much in the dark.

--Eric

Post by z***@gmail.com
I'm having the same problems. Any solution found since you posted
this?
Our application takes 1 minute to install, followed by a long delay
showing an empty progress bar
when the installer runs the vcredist installation at the end.