[mark-r]

I had that problem with Windows 7. For years my media center PC was free from unexpected restarts. Finally I had to give in and reinstall Windows because some software needed VS2017 redistributable, and it refused to install on the borked system.

Decided to upgrade to SSD at the same time since prices have dropped so drastically.

[Negitivefrags]

The need for windows update to be working to install the VS2017 redist was a super annoying move by microsoft.

It wasn't required for previous versions of visual studio.

Because windows update is non-functional for so many windows users (mostly due to piracy) we we basically forced to change to static linking to avoid the need for the redist.

Of course, after we changed to static linking we started to run into a bunch of virus scanners giving false positives with their heuristics because all viruses are statically linked.

[mark-r]

Thank you for that info, I didn't realize it was a deliberate move by Microsoft! Luckily my Windows installation wasn't pirated; I never did figure out why the updates stopped working.

[ConceptJunkie]

That's because the VS redistributables now add extra functionality to the OS. It's insane.