Finally, Microsoft will deliver Visual Studio security updates through the Microsoft Update system

For years, Windows automatically downloads and installs updates to make sure your device is secure and up to date. Users will receive the latest fixes and security updates whenever it is made available by Microsoft. In addition to Windows OS, Microsoft also delivers updates to other Microsoft products such as Office, SQL Server and others via Windows Update. However, Visual Studio was not part of this feature, forcing users to download Visual Studio updates manually and install them outside of Windows Update.

Recently, Microsoft announced that Visual Studio updates are coming to Microsoft Update system which will allow users to download and install Visual Studio security updates through Windows Update. If you have selected the “receiving updates from other Microsoft products” option available in Windows Update, you will start receiving Visual Studio updates from August. Only supported release and LTSC channels of Visual Studio 2022, Visual Studio 2019, and Visual Studio 2017 are supported for this new update mechanism. Visual Studio Previews builds will not be supported.

If you want to receive updates for other Microsoft products, but not Visual Studio, then you should make changes to your registery as below:

HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\VisualStudio\Setup\VSthroughMUUpdatesOptOut (REG_DWORD) = 1

Before delivering this new Visual Studio update experience for all users in August, Microsoft is now previewing this new update experience. To opt into previewing this experience, you should make the following registry changes:

HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\VisualStudio\Setup\PreviewAutomaticUpdates (REG_DWORD) = 1.

It is important to note that Microsoft Update or Visual Studio will never force closing Visual Studio to apply the update. Instead, Microsoft Update will simply offer Visual Studio updates in the background, and if the machine is in a “ready to be updated state”, Visual Studio will be updated.