Year / Release Date: 2018
Update to version: 15.8.1-15.8.6
Developer: Microsoft
Language: English + Russian
System requirements: Operating system:
Operating system:
Windows 10 version 1507 or higher: Home, Professional, for educational institutions and Corporate (release with long-term service is not supported)
Windows Server 2016: Standard and Datacenter
Windows 8.1 (Update 2919355): Basic, Professional, and Corporate
Windows Server 2012 R2 (Update 2919355): Essentials, Standard, Datacenter
Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (with the latest Windows updates): Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate
Equipment:
Processor with a clock speed of at least 1.8 GHz. It is recommended to use at least a dual-core processor.
2 GB of RAM; 4 GB of RAM is recommended (at least 2.5 GB when running on a virtual machine)
Hard disk space: from 1 GB to 40 GB, depending on the installed components.
Video adapter with a minimum resolution of 720p (1280 by 720 pixels); For optimal performance, Visual Studio recommends WXGA resolution (1366 by 768 pixels) or higher.
Installing / updating Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 15.8.x (all studio editions are supported)
In the distribution materials are laid out allowing to install or update (if already installed) Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 version 15.8.1+.
Briefly: add update files (to the folder where you have the studio installer) for all versions of updates below or equal to the target version, but the installer can only run the final version. Or if it is more convenient for you to use clever words, the updates by files are NOT cumulative, and the resulting installer is cumulative.

How to create links to distribution files instead of copying (saved when space is the size of this distribution) (do not confuse these links with shortcuts "labels"):
1. Run FAR Manager (if you do not already have it, first install it ... you can do it according to the instructions in the total, see the instructions below for details);
2. In the left pane, go to the folder with the distribution of updates VS2017_Plus, in the right pane, go to the folder with the basic version VS2017_8 \ Installer (or vice versa);
3. For each subfolder in VS2017_Plus type "Update_15.8.X_To_15.8.Y" perform the following steps:
3.1. Go into it;
3.2. Select all files (this can be done, for example, by pressing Shift + End, all the files will be highlighted starting from the cursor position);
3.3. Press Alt + F6, the link creation window will open. By default, the "hard link" link type is selected, leaving unchanged.
3.4. Click OK. As a result, hard links to files from the left panel will be copied to the right pane with the VS2017_8 \ Installer folder.
3.5. Repeat the action from p.3.1 for each subfolder from p.3.
4. As a result, we have that in the folder with the basic version there will be files before upgrading to the corresponding version 15.8.Y, while the folder with the updates will be saved so that it can be seated. On the disk, there will be only one copy of each file due to hard links, and in Windows Explorer it will appear as if there are two copies of files in different folders.
It is possible to make links both in Total and with the help of hand tools.