Hi, I am not sure if I got your point. First, winsxs is Microsoft's Windows file repository. Every part of Windows is splitted into components and packages. Every package will be copied into the winsxs folder. But the content of the winsxs folder doesn't represent the currently installed features. So for example you could have the IIS package in winsxs, but IIS isn't currently installed on your system. But if you would install IIS now, you won't be prompted for a Windows installation media, because the package is already in the winsxs folder. Same applies to updates: If a new version of a package becomes available (Hotfix, Security Update or just a normal update), Windows will copy the new package into the winsxs folder, next to the already existing older version of the package. This will let the winsxs folder grow, but will also make sure that you are able to remove *every* package at *every* time you want, because you are able to reinstall the previous version. I hope this was clear and nothing new for you. So what's your point? What's wrong when multiple versions of the Visual C++ runtimes are present in the winsxs folder? Nothing. It is only important which version is marked as active. I agree with you: It is not nice, to ship installers with outdated components installer. But it wouldn't be better to release an updated installer every 2 month... So if Microsoft (or any other company) will ship a new program today, it should be bundled with the latest version of the component they are using, because if I haven't installed this component at the moment, I don't want to be vulnerable *after* I install a new product (BTW: Did you ever noticed the end of the Office installation? Microsoft is prompting you to visit Windows updates, just because they know that they will have installed a product/components, which are already out of date). >From my experience, Windows Updates is keeping my Windows components like Visual C++ runtimes up to date: <http://f.666kb.com/i/c6auyx3go8yvhktuo.jpg> So if you noticed an undetected old version, this is a bug and should be reported to Microsoft. They often re-release Windows Updates because of wrong/improved detections. Regarding VC++ 2005 is end of life: If you are expecting, that programs compiled against a specific runtime version will be recompiled, just because the runtime is end of life, you are wrong and - from my point of view - have not understand how runtimes will be used and why it isn't really a risk. But as I said in the beginning, maybe I didn't get your point. -- Regards, Thomas
