Visual Studio Runtime Here

Instead of embedding (statically linking) that code into every single .exe (which wastes disk space and memory), Windows loads a shared DLL: VCRUNTIME140.dll .

If you’ve ever double-clicked a freshly built .exe only to be greeted by “The code execution cannot proceed because VCRUNTIME140.dll was not found” — you’ve met the Visual Studio Runtime. visual studio runtime

# GitHub Actions example - name: Install VC++ Redist run: | curl -L -o vc_redist.exe https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe .\vc_redist.exe /install /quiet /norestart Or use the pre-installed Visual Studio image that already has runtimes. The Visual Studio Runtime isn’t magic or mysterious. It’s just a system DLL that Microsoft expects you to redistribute. Instead of embedding (statically linking) that code into

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\VC\Redist\MSVC\v143\ This works well for portable apps. Use Dependency Walker or the built-in dumpbin tool: The Visual Studio Runtime isn’t magic or mysterious

It’s frustrating. But once you understand what this runtime actually is , that error becomes easy to prevent and fix. In simple terms: when you write C++ code (or use libraries written in C++), your program relies on standard functions like printf , malloc , or memcpy . The Visual C++ Runtime is the DLL that provides those functions at runtime.

End users don’t have Visual Studio. So you have to ship the runtime. 1. Ship the Redistributable (Most Common) Microsoft provides official redistributable packages. Bundle them with your installer.