SteamWorks Common Redist

[Bad 💀 Motha]

OK Valve, those of us using Win10/11 do not need any of these Redists. So why it keeps insisting I download 1.2GB every so often? I don't need or want this junk!!!

[Arc]

Neither Windows comes with optional DX runtime components or all MSVCR revisions.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Yes I understand all that but a majority of games that needs them come with them bundled within a folder as part of the game files download.

[Crashed]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

Yes I understand all that but a majority of games that needs them come with them bundled within a folder as part of the game files download.

They have all switched to the shared common redistributables, to avoid duplicates. As reply #1 pointed out, certain libraries, like legacy DirectX SDK helper libraries and the MSVC runtimes, aren't included with Windows.

As for the .NET Frameworks, they are in fact not needed for Windows 10, as Framework 4.8 (encompassing everything from 4.0 to 4.8) is included, and 3.5 (encompassing 2.0, 3.0, and 3.5) is an optional feature that can be enabled in an Administrator command prompt for unattended installation purposes.

XNA is a legacy runtime used for games like Terraria, also not included with Windows, and OpenAL and PhysX are third party libraries.

That said, I have pointed out that having 4 versions of the MSVC runtimes from 2015 to 2022 is unnecessary, but that is only because the 2022 libraries support 2015, 2017, and 2019 too unlike 2013 and earlier runtimes.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Well no, all the MSVC are necessary, for you to install. As games use different versions of that and each is a stand-alone. There is 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022; each has two variants; X86 and X64. There are others, such as for ARM, but not like Windows OS users need that one.

[Crashed]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

Well no, all the MSVC are necessary, for you to install. As games use different versions of that and each is a stand-alone. There is 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022; each has two variants; X86 and X64. There are others, such as for ARM, but not like Windows OS users need that one.

Microsoft changed the design of the 2015 and up redistributables so you only need a single 2015-2022 for each architecture.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

It's just a single bundled package. They're still 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022
That did not change. MS just decided to bundle them in one package because for modern apps the last couple years, these VC are the most common is all. It's mostly only Games that generally would use older VC runtimes.

[Seven7]

The problem with SteamWorks Common Redist is much broader:
Valve does not have a mechanism forcing publishers and developers to adhere to uniform standards, everyone works with third-party components as they want.
Someone switched to SteamWorks Common Redist
Someone left the old standard when components are loaded into the game folder (moreover, each game has its own naming system for these folders)
And someone, for example, https://store.steampowered.com/app/273500/Over_9000_Zombies/
made it so that if some component is not installed in the system, the game only works partially or does not work at all, if Windows Media Player is not installed, the game icon and achievements disappear, and the user is shown that he plays in the Steam SDK (Spacewar)
(this component is NOT installed by default in W10 and in W11-12 M$ plans to remove it completely)

[Omega]

How do you mean you do not need them? You do need them, and this is a preferred way of shipping them.

The alternative is that every single applications ship its own Redistributable (g. DirectX, PhysX, .net, Uplay, Origin, Games for Windows Live etc..)

Steam doing this, especially if you install a lot of games saves you gigabytes in storage.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

It's BS that we as users need to keep all this junk on our drives. Not just SteamWorks Common Redists but the redist packages each game contains.

All of that junk should be optional, rather then forced. Sure I can delete certain installers, like in a game folder but then I'm forced to download it again if I ever have to verify a game.

[Omega]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

It's BS that we as users need to keep all this junk on our drives. Not just SteamWorks Common Redists but the redist packages each game contains.

All of that junk should be optional, rather then forced. Sure I can delete certain installers, like in a game folder but then I'm forced to download it again if I ever have to verify a game.

Pick one;

1. Always have a single copy of these packages on your system.
   
2. Remove these packages and redownload whenever an update is available or a new redis is required.
   
3. Have multiple copies of various versions of the redists on your system provided by the games themselves.
   
4. Do not provide the redists and tell the user to install them manually.

These are just the limitations of the system you have to deal with, none of the solutions are pretty nor desirable.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Just seems dumb that all these years MS couldn't just have those DirrctX Redist, Visual C Runtimes and XNA Runtimes all listed as Optional Windows Updates. That would have solved all this nonsense for SOOO many years

[TS2]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

Just seems dumb that all these years MS couldn't just have those DirrctX Redist, Visual C Runtimes and XNA Runtimes all listed as Optional Windows Updates. That would have solved all this nonsense for SOOO many years

In the old days, Visual C++ Runtime Redistributables were in fact shipped over Windows Update servers. However, this only affected certain ones, did not affect all systems, and ultimately fell out of favor.

The legacy Jun 2010 DirectX Runtimes, XNA Runtimes, and OpenAL are all optional or third-party, and were never shipped through Windows Update servers at all.

(Also, even the Steamworks Common Redistributables, when called to be installed by game InstallScripts where applicable, do not typically do so in a way the Windows OS understands, requiring manual installation by the end user on Windows 10 anyway. This is likely the root of your problem.

The exceptions to this are .NET Framework 3.5 and DirectPlay OS feature detections. I cannot confirm if this lack of full InstallScript recognition is a thing on Windows 11 yet.)

[Crashed]

Originally posted by TS2:

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

Just seems dumb that all these years MS couldn't just have those DirrctX Redist, Visual C Runtimes and XNA Runtimes all listed as Optional Windows Updates. That would have solved all this nonsense for SOOO many years

In the old days, Visual C++ Runtime Redistributables were in fact shipped over Windows Update servers. However, this only affected certain ones, did not affect all systems, and ultimately fell out of favor.

The legacy Jun 2010 DirectX Runtimes, XNA Runtimes, and OpenAL are all optional or third-party, and were never shipped through Windows Update servers at all.

(Also, even the Steamworks Common Redistributables, when called to be installed by game InstallScripts where applicable, do not typically do so in a way the Windows OS understands, requiring manual installation by the end user on Windows 10 anyway. This is likely the root of your problem.

The exceptions to this are .NET Framework 3.5 and DirectPlay OS feature detections. I cannot confirm if this lack of full InstallScript recognition is a thing on Windows 11 yet.)

Some MSVC runtimes will update through Windows Update, but only if they are already installed and Microsoft Update is enabled.

The .NET Framework redists can be dumped as Widnows 10 and 11 already have them either built in or as optional features.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Yes they will "update" but for a user who doesn't know you need them, well the game would have to produce an error saying "this is required" etc.

But do they all, MS, Valve, Game Devs... not realize how much dam disk space you causing all of the users to waste because you require all these installers to download onto our machines. MS is the one who should have set some kind of standard for distribution LONG ago. This whole thing is so dumb. I shouldn't be required to have useless installers download with my hundreds or thousands of games. And yes I want all those games "installed" cause why not.

Windows OS has had that "Turn Windows Features On/Off" available in control panel long enough that MS should have offered that all of those optionals that are relevant be listed right in there. So that when you tick the box to install them, they download through Windows Updates. Or again, have them all listed as optionals right on the Windows Updates section.

I suppose this is a useless discussion. But it is "steam" I needed to get off my chest just because of stupid the entire industry is when it comes to this stuff. Valve made it worse, not better.

For one thing we never need a Dot-NET Frameworks installer anymore because Win8 and above IIRC, do not use those. Or maybe just Win10/11, but still they never needed those because they are not even compatible with those OS. And must be done through that "Turn Windows Features On/Off" section.

One reason I made this thread was an issue I kept having at random. For example I had GTAV just crash to desktop for pretty much no real reason. First time in a long time it happened. Then I restart my PC, launch Steam, then some how because of the game crashing, the steam app manifest got screwed up in the process. So upon launching Steam Client again I can't launch GTAV; the Download section showing I have to download SteamWorks Common Redist (1.2GB) and then also a portion of the game again as well. Finally I fixed it as I've learned how to manually edit the steam app manifests to put a stop to that if an actual update is not needed. IDK why those sometimes get corrupted on a game or system crash but it's very annoying to say the least. Happened the other day, again when RDR2 crashed. But overall I rarely have game or system crashes though; FYI

Yes I could see things like OpenAL or PhysX; as those are 3rd party; but DirectX Redist June 2010, NET/ASP/XNA Frameworks and Visual C Runtimes are all Microsoft stuff.

All these years and game devs, mostly due in part to how Microsoft handles things; haven't learned anything from Linux over the years, and how all that works.

If a game requires something in Windows, Microsoft should have had it so a game can just called up Windows Updates Services and fetch what is required from Microsoft Servers. All of this should not be up to Valve and Game Devs to decide what we need to download/install and such. And allow them to house all these needless installers on our systems.

[Crashed]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

Yes they will "update" but for a user who doesn't know you need them, well the game would have to produce an error saying "this is required" etc.

But do they all, MS, Valve, Game Devs... not realize how much dam disk space you causing all of the users to waste because you require all these installers to download onto our machines. MS is the one who should have set some kind of standard for distribution LONG ago. This whole thing is so dumb. I shouldn't be required to have useless installers download with my hundreds or thousands of games. And yes I want all those games "installed" cause why not.

Windows OS has had that "Turn Windows Features On/Off" available in control panel long enough that MS should have offered that all of those optionals that are relevant be listed right in there. So that when you tick the box to install them, they download through Windows Updates. Or again, have them all listed as optionals right on the Windows Updates section.

I suppose this is a useless discussion. But it is "steam" I needed to get off my chest just because of stupid the entire industry is when it comes to this stuff. Valve made it worse, not better.

For one thing we never need a Dot-NET Frameworks installer anymore because Win8 and above IIRC, do not use those. Or maybe just Win10/11, but still they never needed those because they are not even compatible with those OS. And must be done through that "Turn Windows Features On/Off" section.

One reason I made this thread was an issue I kept having at random. For example I had GTAV just crash to desktop for pretty much no real reason. First time in a long time it happened. Then I restart my PC, launch Steam, then some how because of the game crashing, the steam app manifest got screwed up in the process. So upon launching Steam Client again I can't launch GTAV; the Download section showing I have to download SteamWorks Common Redist (1.2GB) and then also a portion of the game again as well. Finally I fixed it as I've learned how to manually edit the steam app manifests to put a stop to that if an actual update is not needed. IDK why those sometimes get corrupted on a game or system crash but it's very annoying to say the least. Happened the other day, again when RDR2 crashed. But overall I rarely have game or system crashes though; FYI

Yes I could see things like OpenAL or PhysX; as those are 3rd party; but DirectX Redist June 2010, NET/ASP/XNA Frameworks and Visual C Runtimes are all Microsoft stuff.

All these years and game devs, mostly due in part to how Microsoft handles things; haven't learned anything from Linux over the years, and how all that works.

If a game requires something in Windows, Microsoft should have had it so a game can just called up Windows Updates Services and fetch what is required from Microsoft Servers. All of this should not be up to Valve and Game Devs to decide what we need to download/install and such. And allow them to house all these needless installers on our systems.

.NET Framework 3.5 can be installed via the command line using the following command:

DISM /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:NetFx3 /All