Can I uninstall visual studio 2017 and still use the 2017 platform toolset in visual studio 2019?

Question

IIRC, you used to have to have a prior version installed in order to build using that tool set, but from what I gather now the platform tools are optionally installed with the newer version. At the time I installed 2019, I was using the 2017 version, I still have lots of projects using the 2017 platform tool set even though I only use vs2019.

Answer 1

Yes, you can, but not the way you think. The vc141 toolkit (VS2017) also comes with 2019 and you have to install it separately.

• uninstall VS2017 completely
• open the Visual Studio Installer
• click "modify" on the 2019 instance
• go to "invidual components"
• enter "v141" in the search field
• install all components you need

IOW: The platform and toolkit for VS2017 are also contained in VS2019.

Now you can choose "v141" in the "Toolkit" property and you can even mix and match.