The is not a single year's version but a binary-compatible runtime family . Microsoft unified the runtime versioning starting with Visual Studio 2015 (Version 14.0). Consequently, apps built with VS 2015, 2017, or 2019 all require the same redistributable package (version 14.x). This eliminates the need for side-by-side installations of three separate versions, replacing them with a single installable set of DLLs.
While there isn't a single "paper" for Microsoft Visual C++ 2015–2019, Microsoft provides several official technical documents and guides that serve this purpose. Depending on whether you need a technical overview, a guide for redistributing files, or language conformance details, you can refer to the following resources:
However, starting with , Microsoft changed the underlying "binary layout" of the code. They made a decision to keep this layout compatible for future versions. Therefore:
: A critical technical point for 2015–2019 is that they share a binary-compatible runtime, meaning an application built with the 2015 compiler can run on the 2019 redistributable. 3. Language Conformance Specifications
What is Visual C++ Redistributable (2026 Guide How it Works) | IronPDF
