How to install "working" Visual Studio on ARM64

Owned by Przemyslaw Wirkus
Last updated: Nov 28, 2023
3 min read

Introduction

In this topic we will discuss how to install https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/community/ on ARM64 machine. Goal is to install VS that can build https://gitlab.com/Linaro/WindowsPerf/windowsperf project.

You will need

  • Visual Studio Community installed on your x64 machine - please note this installation will be one we will replicate on ARM64 machine so make sure it’s up to date and can build cross WindowsPerf project on x64.

  • ARM64 Windows on Arm machine with Windows 11. Please uninstall all VS 2022 Community version from the machine. You can leave “Preview” versions of VS as they will not collide with the installation.

Articles

Preparing custom VS installation

Export VS configuration to a local file

Use the Visual Studio Installer UI and:

  1. Open the Visual Studio Installer.

  2. On the product card, choose the More button, and then select Export configuration.

  1. Browse to or type the location where you want to save your .vsconfig file, and then choose Review details.

  1. Make sure you've got the workloads and components that you want, and then choose Export.

See for more details on how to export .vsconfig file from your existing VS Community installation.

Create network installation of Visual Studio

See for more detailed description of the process.

Download the Visual Studio bootstrapper to create the layout

Visual Studio 2022 Community

vs_community.exe

See chapter Download the Visual Studio bootstrapper to create the layout for latest links.

Put .vsconfig and vs_community.exe file in one directory (not the layout directory)

>dir C:\vs_bootstrap 28/11/2023 11:35 <DIR> . 28/11/2023 11:35 <DIR> .. 28/11/2023 10:19 5,062 .vsconfig 28/11/2023 11:14 3,952,960 vs_Community.exe

Prepare directory to store VS installation layout

>mkdir D:\VSLayout

Create layout with the bootstrap tool

>cd vs_bootstrap >vs_Community.exe --layout d:\vs_native --config .vsconfig

Command will open new installer window:

and will continue with VS Community component download. Please note that d:\vs_native will be populated with around 40 GB of data. Downloading process will take at least 15 minutes.

When process is finished you will see:

[Optional] You can verify your layout

Use below command to verify your layout:

Example of successful layout verification output:

Install VS on ARM64 machine

After creating local VS installer layout you can install it on your ARM64 machine.

Copy the layout to ARM64 machine local folder

You can copy layout e.g. using Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V inside Remote Desktop session.

Install VS from the layout

Use C:\vs_native\vs_setup.exe to install VS.

Note: Please remove old VS Community 2022 installation.

Install SDK and WDK

Please follow article’s:

  • Step 2: Install SDK and

  • Step 3: Install WDK.

Test your installation by building WindowsPerf solution

You can open windowsperf.sln with your VS 2022 and build e.g. wperf project. You will see something like this: