Demystifying Preparation.exe in Visual Studio 2013 Repacks If you’ve ever tried to install a custom "repack" or a highly compressed version of Visual Studio 2013 , you likely encountered a file or a process called preparation.exe

Offline Installation: Including all updates (like Update 5) and redistributables (C++ 2013 runtimes) in a single package.

First, build the executable file in Visual Studio 2013. This can be done by selecting "Build" from the menu bar and then clicking on "Build Solution" (or press F7). This will create the executable file in the specified output directory.

  1. Right-click setup.exe or the main installer executable.
  2. Select Properties → Compatibility tab.
  3. Check ✅ Run this program as an administrator.
  4. Check ✅ Run this program in compatibility mode for → Select Windows 8 or Windows 7.
  5. Click Apply → OK.
  6. Launch the installer again.

A re-pack of Preparation.exe for Visual Studio 2013 may imply that someone has re-created the executable file, possibly with modifications or updates not included in the original package. This can be done for various reasons, such as:

Purpose: It acts as a "bootstrapper" or pre-installer that checks for and installs necessary system dependencies .

Handling Preparation: Because preparation.exe can be slow, ensure your deployment script accounts for a long timeout period or runs as a background task to prevent the main setup process from being killed prematurely. "microsoft visual studio preparation" extremely slow

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