Stuck when uninstalling visual studio 2013 Update 3

Question

I cannot uninstall VS 2013 Update 3 from "control panel"-> "view installed updates". It displays the message "Visual Studio 2013 Udpate 3 (KB2829760) has stopped working". How can I completely delete all the VS update elements ?

Answer 1

There's a few ways to do this.

From the installation media or from where its installed you can run:

vs_<enterprise/ultimate etc>.exe /uninstall /force

Alternatively you can use the Visual Studio Uninstaller provided by MS for this exact purpose. https://github.com/Microsoft/VisualStudioUninstaller

I've used the /force option when VS 2013 wouldn't uninstall from Programs and Features and just hung.

Note: Visual Studio 2013 and Visual Studio 2015 can appear to hang sometimes when you uninstall them. If using the command above my experience has been to just let them go and eventually it cleans it self up.

Answer 2

Your best bet is to uninstall Visual Studio, and then reinstall it. I haven't heard of this error before, and a Google search doesn't help in this matter.

A few things you could try:

• Repairing the disk Visual Studio is installed on (right click the disk, find and run the Scan for Errors tool.
• Starting your computer in Safe Mode and attempting to uninstall Update 3
• If you do not have a legal license to Visual Studio 2013, this could be Microsoft's way of saying 'bugger off'. In this case purchase a legal copy of Visual Studio 2013, or download the Visual Studio 2013 Community Edition.
• Restore your system to the state it was in before Visual Studio 2013 Update 3 was installed.
• Try removing all traces of Visual Studio 2013 (apart from your projects) using a tool such as CCleaner or Soft Organiser.
• Remove/deactivate any extensions installed to Visual Studio