Installation

System Requirements

Requirement	Minimum
OS	Windows 10 1809+ / Windows 11
Architecture	x64 or ARM64
Disk Space	~2 GB (MSVC only) / ~5 GB (MSVC + SDK)
Rust	1.70+ (for cargo install)

Installation Methods

Via Winget (Recommended)

The easiest way to install msvc-kit on Windows:

winget install loonghao.msvc-kit

Via PowerShell Script

One-liner installation script:

irm https://github.com/loonghao/msvc-kit/releases/latest/download/install.ps1 | iex

This script automatically downloads the latest release and installs it to your PATH.

Direct Download

Download the pre-built binary from the latest GitHub Release:

Platform	Download
Windows x64	msvc-kit-x86_64-windows.exe

Place the downloaded .exe anywhere in your PATH.

Via Cargo

If you have Rust installed:

cargo install msvc-kit

This installs the latest stable version from crates.io.

From Source

git clone https://github.com/loonghao/msvc-kit.git
cd msvc-kit
cargo install --path .

Verify Installation

msvc-kit --version
# msvc-kit 0.2.x

msvc-kit --help

Uninstallation

Remove CLI

cargo uninstall msvc-kit

Remove Downloaded Components

# Remove all installed versions and cache
msvc-kit clean --all --cache

# Or manually delete the data directory
rm -rf "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\loonghao\msvc-kit\data"

Remove Configuration

rm "$env:APPDATA\loonghao\msvc-kit\config\config.toml"

Troubleshooting

Cargo Install Fails

If cargo install fails with linker errors, you might need MSVC to build msvc-kit itself. Use Winget or the PowerShell install script instead.

Permission Denied

Run PowerShell as Administrator if you encounter permission issues.

Network Issues

If downloads fail, check:

• Firewall settings (allow HTTPS to Microsoft CDN)
• Proxy configuration
• Try with --parallel-downloads 1 to reduce connections

msvc-kit download --parallel-downloads 1