Installing Visual Studio takes more than 40 hours

Question

I recently started programming in C++ and required a specific library (Ws2_32.lib) that comes with visual studio. I was reluctant to download visual studio for something so simple but couldn't find an alternative. The problem is that it has been 43 hours and visual studio community 2015 has still not finished installing. I have searched for this problem and common solutions and have crossed a few off the list:

1. It isn't to do with network connection (the network has been connected the whole time and the acquiring bar is full, it is stuck on the applying stage)
2. It isn't just a long install (average install for visual studio is an hour)

Is there a way to fix this and/or get Ws2_32.lib seperately?

EDIT: The install is not hung, it is still installing just incredibly slowly.

Answer 1

If you don't actually want the VS IDE, you should simply download the MinGW C++ compiler from somewhere like http://tdm-gcc.tdragon.net which includes import libraries for all of the Win32 APIs. Installing takes about 5 minutes.

Answer 2

The Windows SDK is available as a separate download (see Windows 10 SDK ). You don't need Visual Studio to get the Windows Sockets 2 libraries.

If you do want to use Visual Studio for Windows programming (an this is highly recommended), make sure to only install those features, that you are actually planning to use. Even though 43 hours is longer than anything I have heard reports from, installing Visual Studio can take considerably longer than setting up an entire OS.