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Visual Studio and servicing baselines

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Applies to: yesVisual Studio noVisual Studio for Mac noVisual Studio Code

Visual Studio is updated frequently during its product lifecycle. There are two main types of updates: feature updates and servicing updates. Feature updates are indicated by a change in the minor version number, such as 16.4 to 16.5, and they contain significant product updates. Servicing updates consist of critical quality or security fixes and they are denoted by a change in the servicing version number, such as 16.7.8 to 16.7.9.

A servicing baseline, also referred to as a Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) is a particular minor version that is supported and kept secure for about a year longer than other minor versions. The purpose of servicing baselines is to give Enterprise and Professional customers a way to adopt and stay on a very stable product and minimize compatibility risk while also staying secure. Refer to the Visual Studio support lifecycle documentation for information about support for secure baselines.

How to configure your client machine to stay on a servicing baseline

In Visual Studio 2019, it was a challenge to stay on a servicing baseline. You had to use the specific minor version bootstrapper available on either My.VisualStudio.Com or the Visual Studio 2019 release history page to update your client or your layout with the specific version you wanted. You also sometimes needed to perform additional customizations to fine tune the experience.

In Visual Studio 2022, we vastly improved the experience of easily configuring a client machine to stay on a servicing baseline. Using the Visual Studio 2022 installer, which can also be used by older versions of Visual Studio such as Visual Studio 2019, you can now configure where your clients will get their updates from using the Update settings dialog or the modifySettings command. These update source locations are called "channels", and you can find more information about channel purpose and availability in the Visual Studio Release Rhythm documentation. Microsoft makes both the Current and the Preview channels available to everyone, and the Long-Term Servicing Channels (LTSCs) are available to Enterprise and Professional customers. IT Administrators can also configure network layouts as valid update source locations that the clients could have access to.

Under the covers, the update source location and corresponding notification flag is governed by the client's --channelUri value.

  • For client machines that are attached to network layouts, this value is typically passed in via the channelUri value in the layout's customized response.json file. For more information, refer to configuring client defaults when installing from a network layout.
  • For client machines that have installed the product using a bootstrapper from the internet, you can disable both the update notifications and the ability for Visual Studio to update from the internet by passing in a non-existent channelURI when the product is originally installed (example below). This approach will prevent you from receiving notifications about security updates, so while it's possible to do, we don't recommend it.
vs_enterprise.exe --channelUri c:\doesnotexist.chman

How to stay on a servicing baseline

When an update for a servicing baseline is available, fixed-version bootstrapper files are made available for the servicing update at My.VisualStudio.com.

For administrators who deploy by using a network layout install, the administrator should update the layout location. Clients that installed from the location will receive update notifications. If the update must be deployed to clients, follow these instructions. When you modify the 'response.json' for an update, do not add additional workloads, components, or languages. Managing these settings must be done as a 'modify' deployment after the product has been updated.

For an internet-based installation, run the new fixed version bootstrapper with the --channelUri parameter pointing to a non-existent channel manifest on the client. If the update is deployed in quiet or passive mode, use two separate commands:

  1. Update the Visual Studio installer:

    vs_enterprise.exe --quiet --update
  1. Update the Visual Studio application itself: 
    vs_enterprise.exe update --installPath "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise" --quiet --wait --norestart --channelUri c:\doesnotexist.chman
  1. Update the Visual Studio application itself: 
    vs_enterprise.exe update --installPath "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Enterprise" --quiet --wait --norestart --channelUri c:\doesnotexist.chman

Support or troubleshooting

Sometimes, things can go wrong. If your Visual Studio installation fails, see Troubleshoot Visual Studio installation and upgrade issues for step-by-step guidance.

Here are a few more support options:

  • We also offer an installation chat (English only) support option for installation-related issues.
  • Report product issues to us via the Report a Problem tool that appears both in the Visual Studio Installer and in the Visual Studio IDE. If you're an IT Administrator and don't have Visual Studio installed, you can submit IT Admin feedback here.
  • Suggest a feature, track product issues, and find answers in the Visual Studio Developer Community.

See also