Visual Studio Installer – Update Channels

Visual Studio Installer not only allows you to manage all the different versions of Visual Studio you have installed on your workstation, you can also manage the channels for each of your products. For example Visual Studio 2019 allows you to select from the following update channels in update settings:

• Release
• Preview

These settings are located in the More button/dropdown by clicking Update settings

If you’ve been able to install Visual Studio 2022 the update channels are different, you can pick from the following:

• Current
• Preview
• LTSC Version 17.0

Note: The Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) includes security and high priority servicing bug fixes while remaining at the 17.0 feature level. The Current channel includes the latest features and fixes that are ready for production use. The Preview channel provides an early look into what’s coming in the next feature release on the Current channel.

I typically have two (2) channels of a version of Visual Studio on my machine, Current and Preview just in case the version of Preview has an issue with my machine I can fallback to using the Current version.

If you’re looking for a specific bootstrapper for Visual Studio which installs the latest release (evergreen bootstrappers) or a fixed version (fixed version bootstrappers) from a channel you can use the links provided. If you’re not sure which bootstrapper you have downloaded you can check the Details tab of the installer and check the Product version value (click on the images to see the enlarged versions).

Hope that helps. Happy Holidays