Visual Studio Community Edition 2022 is a powerful, free IDE for students, open-source contributors, and individual developers. Deploying it across multiple machines in an enterprise or academic environment can be challenging without automation. In this guide, we’ll walk you through packaging and deploying Visual Studio Community 2022 using Microsoft Intune for a streamlined and silent installation experience.
Why Deploy via Intune?
Microsoft Intune enables administrators to remotely install and manage applications on Windows devices, ensuring consistent configurations and reducing manual intervention. By using the Visual Studio Installer (Bootstrapper), we can install the application silently with predefined workloads and components.
1. Download the Visual Studio Community Installer
Download the official Visual Studio Community 2022 bootstrapper from Microsoft:
https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vs_Community.exe
This small executable downloads the full Visual Studio package based on the parameters you define.
2. Prepare Your Deployment Package
Create a packaging folder containing the following files:
- vs_Community.exe (Visual Studio bootstrapper)
- Create InstallVisualStudioCommunity2022.cmd file including the following:
vs_Community.exe --installPath "C:\VS2022"
--channelUri "https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/channel"
--channelId VisualStudio.17.Release
--productId Microsoft.VisualStudio.Product.Community
--add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NativeDesktop
--add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NetWeb
--add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.Node
--add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.Python
--includeRecommended --quiet --wait
This command installs Visual Studio to C:\VS2022 with workloads for:
- Desktop development with C++
- ASP.NET and web development
- Node.js development
- Python development
3. Create an Intune Win32 App Package
Things to consider during the packaging of applications
Please specify the source folder: [APP_FOLDER_NAME]
Please specify the setup file: vs_Community.exe
Please specify the output folder: [OUTPUT_APP_PACKAGE_FOLDER_NAME]
4. Configure Detection Rules
Detection ensures Intune doesn’t reinstall software unnecessarily.
- Rule Type: File
- Path: C:\VS2022\Common7\IDE
- File: devenv.exe
- Detection Method: File or folder exists
Parameters | Command / Value |
Install Command (silent) | InstallVisualStudioCommunity2022.cmd |
Uninstall Command (silent) | "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\InstallCleanup.exe" -f |
Detection Rules | Add - rule type - File Associated with 32 bit app - No |