…you’re missing this exact package.

: Includes the latest security, reliability, and performance improvements for C++ applications. Usage & Compatibility

: Allows multiple applications to share the same installed libraries, saving disk space.

Microsoft changed its versioning strategy starting with Visual Studio 2015. Instead of creating entirely new, incompatible libraries for every new version of Visual Studio (2017, 2019, 2022), they made them backward compatible.

This feature breaks down the latest iteration——and why downloading it is often the "magic fix" for a broken application environment.