msvcup

Jonathan Marler · JonathanMarler.msvcup

A standalone tool for installing the MSVC toolchain and Windows SDK without Visual Studio.

msvcup is a standalone tool for installing the MSVC toolchain and Windows SDK without Visual Studio. The Visual Studio Installer manages thousands of components, modifies the registry, and can take hours to configure. msvcup treats the toolchain as a versioned asset rather than global system state. The build environment is defined by code, not a GUI. - Fast: Runs in milliseconds when already installed. Put it at the start of every build script. - Reproducible: Lock file ensures everyone gets the same toolchain. - Isolated: Every package is installed to its own versioned directory. No registry modifications. No conflicts. - Cross-compilation: Target x64, arm64, or x86 out of the box. - Minimal: Download only what's needed to get a working native toolchain/SDK.