A couple of days ago, I had to migrate from Visual Studio 2017 to Visual Studio 2019. During installation, I came across a very annoying error – vs_runtimeMinimum_x64.msi is missing. The bigger problem was that I had that error message even trying to reinstall Microsoft Visual C++ redistributables.
Keep in mind that this fix would work for any application that requires “vc_runtimeMinimum_x64”, not only Visual Studio.
Steps to get rid of “vc_runtimeMinimum_x64.msi is missing” error message
1. First cancel any running installation of the problematic software (in my case, that was Visual Studio 2019);
2. Download “Microsoft troubleshooter”. You can do it following this link.
3. After you have downloaded the tool start this file (with Administrator permissions) – MicrosoftProgram_Install_and_Uninstall.meta.diagcab;
4. Click “Next”, then “Uninstalling”;
5. Wait until Microsoft troubleshooter lists all the available applications;
6. Uninstall all occurrences of Microsoft Visual C++ redistributables;
7. If some packages can not be uninstalled, you need to delete their records in the registry manually. If you manage to uninstall all the packages using the Microsoft troubleshooter, then go to step 8;
7a. Place the mouse cursor over the package that can not be uninstalled. A small popup will appear with the registry key;
7b. Start the “Registry Editor” application, find the problematic records using the “Ctrl+F,” and delete the folders containing the keys. Of course, I strongly recommend you to do a backup of the registry before deleting anything;
8. After all the Microsoft Visual C++ packages are uninstalled, restart the computer;
9. Go to this link and download all the Microsoft Visual C++ redistributable packages you have uninstalled;
10. Install them one by one from the lowest version to the highest;
11. Restart the computer;
12. Restart the Visual Studio installation process.
And that’s it. As I said above, you can use this fix for any application giving you vc_runtimeMinimum_x64 error message.
