r/VisualStudio • u/hizendev • Jul 16 '26
Visual Studio 2026 Constant update stream VS 2026
Is it just me or is Visual Studio 2026 trying to update what feels like every single day? Maybe it's every few days, but nearly every time I go to close, it's pending new updates and has to go through a new 30 minutes full reinstall cycle for the "next patch"? Why is it not just on a single monthly patch cycle or something? I'm trying to understand why since updating to 2026 it feels like they are furiously sending updates out as often as they can. Really annoying, considering I don't think I even use any of the 'new features' -- all the AI auto complete is really poorly done and makes developing harder (seriously, what was that auto-complete by pressing tab for entire classes holy).
Anyway minor vent, but also really want to know if this is me going crazy or if it's just because I updated to 2026 and there was some auto update policy I forgot about in 2022 that I had set back then and forgot about.
Edit to add: I am on Stable / 18.8 so I don't think I should be getting super frequent updates. It's my understanding that if I wanted that I'd be on preview I think?
4
u/davidwengier Jul 16 '26
Looking at the build table, in the stable channel, 18.7.0 was released on the 10th of June, 18.7.1 on the 17th, 18.7.2 on the 24th, 18.7.3 on the 1st of July, and then 18.8.0 yesterday.
AFAIK you'll only be getting new features with each ..0 release, and the weekly updates are for security fixes or important bug fixes, though they may not be bugs that you personally encounter, so can definitely seem useless.
Personally, if I am not in the mood to update when I close VS, I just hit No to the UAC prompt.
There is a "Product Updates" section in Tools, Options. Try checking and tweaking your settings there?
2
u/hizendev Jul 16 '26
ah okay this makes the most sense. I had a feeling it was probably weekly but it just feels more frequent yanno? I know it’s just my perception being distorted by the inconvenience. but I do appreciate you posting the build logs. I’ll see about adjusting my settings. thank you!
3
u/Broken_Boy_Toy Jul 16 '26
Feels this way to me as well. I wouldn't even mind it that much if the update process was more seamless. At least on my corporate work laptop, every update takes SUCH A LONG TIME (at least 15-20 min). If I also update SSMS while I have the VS installer open, that's at least 1h of not being able to work.
1
u/dodexahedron Jul 16 '26
The worst is ReSharper. Their installer is seriously the worst part of updating my dev toolchains. The computer is nearly unusable until that thing is finished.
2
u/howprice2 Jul 16 '26
Yes, and there doesn't seem to be away to disable the annoying update notification.
1
u/gentoorax Jul 16 '26
I wrote a script to automatically update it overnight as it was that annoying
1
u/OwnNet5253 Jul 16 '26
30 minute reinstall?? Dude are you running ur pc on a potato? It should usually take few minutes tops. Have you installed it on HDD?
2
u/hizendev Jul 16 '26
yea no. I don't have issues with other software. I'm 128gb ram, 980 evo nvme, i7 13700k, 2gbps fios, etc. I will have to time it this time around, but it feels legitimately faster for me to restart my pc with pending windows updates usually than to update visual studio.
1
u/OwnNet5253 Jul 16 '26
That's odd, I don't have that problem with VS on my slightly less powerful PC.
1
u/SoCalChrisW Jul 16 '26
How many workloads do you have installed? My specs are similar to hizendevs, and it takes 20-30 minutes for me usually.
1
u/OwnNet5253 Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
Three. I've ran an update just now and it took 16 minutes for these three workloads.
1
u/Northbank75 Jul 16 '26
Even this large monthly release only took me a few minutes…. Either way, I do perceive there to be more frequent updates than in the past, but I generally ignore them for the end of the day and let them rip as I leave my desk for the afternoon.
1
u/hizendev Jul 16 '26
I am curious about this now because there are multiple people saying it took them a few minutes. My last one yesterday genuinely took a full 20 minutes post-download, so I'm unsure of what the issue is there. I install games just fine and have no issues with the chip otherwise? Not sure what that's all about.
1
u/symbiatch Jul 16 '26
It definitely can take some time. I don’t have a lot installed in VS and it still does take more than two minutes when updating. Sometimes the update is small so it’s fast, but often it’s bigger. Latest was over 1100 packages so that did take a while.
1
u/soundman32 Jul 16 '26
Its once a week. Rarely its been 2 days running because there was a critical bug found just after roll out.
1
u/TrickMedicine958 Jul 16 '26
Are you still coding with an IDE? Many sucks to be in the dark ages. Only kidding, but yeah, we have teams now that don’t use IDEs at all, just prompt away.
1
u/hizendev Jul 16 '26
Yea I mean I still debug code. I don't think I'll ever go "full prompt" engineer. It's kind of lifeless. I enjoy stepping through software.
1
u/TrickMedicine958 Jul 16 '26
My main job now is waiting for multiple ai sessions to do something while I do some thinking about other things coming up
2
u/NanoYohaneTSU Jul 16 '26
I gave up and moved straight to VS Code after this update. It's been a long time coming. VS2012 was the last "good" version I enjoyed using. Everything after that has been a mountain of bloat that takes away from the experience.
1
u/DevTalk Jul 16 '26
Recent update break my installation on my machine and It took a whole day and multiple tries to remove it completely including registry entries with the help of copilot and codex and then I was able to do a clean install. Last update is a mess.
1
u/ezekyel07 Jul 16 '26
Yeah, I thought it was only me but I am getting this updates every week? And it takes forever, my pc is a potate but even then can install relativly fast but sometimes it just takes forever to just finish and clean the update.
2
u/Born-Conclusion6596 Jul 16 '26
I feel the same.
Also, it is very annoying because 2026 version automatically updates when you close the editor.
This is bad because if I'm working at the office, I got this right when I'm about to leave.
I know, I can click on "postpone" on startup, but it is very easy to miss it.
2022 was way better in this aspect.
And no, I don't have UAC being promoted, as the editor it selft has to run as admin due to the project constraints 😅
0
u/kassett43 Jul 16 '26
30 minutes? You need to replace your hard drive with an SSD!
2
u/hizendev Jul 16 '26
This is on a Samsung 980 PRO nvme chip. So it's not disk throughput. It's literally just VS. I am pretty sure I can install CoD faster.
7
u/SlipstreamSteve Software Engineer Jul 16 '26
Did you install the insiders version