Can I update Visual Studio Community 2015 RC to 2015 Release when the final version is released, (without reinstallation)?

Question

I know it\'s not a big deal to reinstall, but the file is more than 4 GB large; and the installation process is time consuming. When the final VS 2015 is released, can I update

Answer 1

That is the plan, but being pre-release software, anything can happen.

Upgrade to RTM. Upgrading from RC to the final release (“RTM”) of Visual Studio and TFS 2015 should be smooth.

Answer 2

Yes, this is a supported upgrade path and we test for it. You may also have other version of Visual Studio installed, side by side installs are also tested for (VS 2013 side by side with VS 2015 is officially supported).

That being said VS 2015 does bring in a number of external components so there's always a risk that on some configuration the upgrade will not work properly.

Source: I'm working on the Visual Studio team.

Answer 3

Apparently, it's necessary to remove the previous versions of Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable x64 and x86 to permit the upgrade to complete. This involves a full restart.