Visual Studio Community Edition Offline Installer ✭

vs_Community.exe --layout D:\VS_Offline --lang en-US

This fetches new packages into the existing layout. Then redistribute the updated folder.

To install without user interaction (using the offline layout): visual studio community edition offline installer

\\server\VS2022_Offline\vs_community.exe --quiet --wait --norestart

To install with specific components from the offline layout: vs_Community

vs_community.exe --layout C:\VSOffline --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.ManagedDesktop --includeRecommended --quiet

Save the bootstrapper to the machine you’ll use to build the offline layout. This fetches new packages into the existing layout

Of course, there are trade-offs. The offline installer doesn’t auto-update. You miss out on those tiny daily patches. Also, Microsoft’s certificates expire. If you create an offline layout today and try to use it two years from now, the signing certs might be dead, forcing you to adjust your system clock (a hack that feels gloriously retro).

If you try to install a workload using --add that was not included when you originally ran the --layout command, the installer will fail (especially with the --noweb switch).

The Fix: You must connect the machine to the internet temporarily, or go back to your "source" machine, update the layout to include that workload, and transfer the new files over.