Download and Install Visual Studio 2013 Community Edition

There was this old legacy Silverlight (remember it? Microsoft’s Flash?) project in production that I needed to run. It’s so old that I barely remember anything about it.

I tried to run it using the latest Visual Studio, and it obviously couldn’t build it. Migration is currently out of the question, so I needed to install the Visual Studio version originally used to build this project, which was Visual Studio 2013.

Since I needed a specific Visual Studio 2013 version to run this project, I’m going to share where to download it (using Microsoft’s official download link), how to install it, and how to fix some issues along the way. Read on!

• Video
• Download Visual Studio 2013
• Install Visual Studio 2013 Community (Step by Step)
• Fix Microsoft Sign-In Issue
• Open Visual Studio 2013
• Final Thoughts
• References

Video

Not in the mood for reading? Watch the video instead.

Download Visual Studio 2013

The following installer files are for the last release of Visual Studio 2013, which is Visual Studio 2013 Update 5.

Select the edition that suits your license. You can use the Community edition for free, but make sure you’re working in an environment that complies with the license terms.

After downloading the edition you need, follow the next section to install Visual Studio 2013 on a Windows 11 PC.

Install Visual Studio 2013 Community (Step by Step)

After downloading the installer, which I assume is the ISO file, mount it using the File Explorer.

A security warning dialog may appear. Just click Open. This ISO file wasn’t signed correctly by Microsoft, which is why the warning appears. If you’re feeling paranoid, you can always scan it for viruses first.

A new Explorer window will open. For example, if you’re using Visual Studio 2013 Community, you’ll see a new DVD drive with the name VS2013_5_CE_ENU. From there, run the installer file, such as vs_community.exe.

The first Visual Studio 2013 dialog will appear. Just check that you agree to the License Terms and Privacy Policy—you’re probably not going to read them anyway.

The next dialog will show a list of optional features available for installation. Select whatever features you need, or leave the default selection.

These are the available options:

• Blend for Visual Studio
• Microsoft Foundation Classes for C++
• Microsoft SQL Server Data Tools
• Microsoft Web Developer Tools
• Tools for Maintaining Store Apps for Windows 8
• Silverlight Development Kit
• Windows Phone 8.0 SDK

After that, click the INSTALL button.

You may want to grab a coffee because it’s going to take a while, depending on how many features you choose to install.

Once the installation is finished, click the big blue LAUNCH button to start the Visual Studio 2013 IDE.

At this point, you’re almost done and ready to start using Visual Studio 2013.

Fix Microsoft Sign-In Issue

The first time you launch Visual Studio 2013, a dialog will appear asking you to sign in. If you’re using Visual Studio 2013 Community Edition, you’ll be required to sign in with a Microsoft account.

But, if you’re launching it in 2026 like I did, the sign-in dialog won’t appear. Instead, you’ll see an error message like this:

Sorry, we ran into a problem. The online service is not available. Please try again later.

Despite what the error message says, the authentication server is still online and working. You just need to enable TLS 1.2 for .NET Framework 4.0.

To do that, you’ll need to edit the Windows Registry.

If you’re using Windows 11, Visual Studio 2013 runs as a 32-bit application on a 64-bit operating system, so update the following registry values:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v4.0.30319]
      "SystemDefaultTlsVersions" = dword:00000001
      "SchUseStrongCrypto" = dword:00000001

If you’re using a 32-bit operating system like Windows 10, update these values instead:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v4.0.30319]
      "SystemDefaultTlsVersions" = dword:00000001
      "SchUseStrongCrypto" = dword:00000001

Alternatively, you can use following PowerShell script below (for Windows 11 64-bit OS):

New-ItemProperty -path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\.NetFramework\v4.0.30319' -name 'SystemDefaultTlsVersions' -value '1' -PropertyType 'DWord' -Force | Out-Null
New-ItemProperty -path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\.NetFramework\v4.0.30319' -name 'SchUseStrongCrypto' -value '1' -PropertyType 'DWord' -Force | Out-Null

Once you’ve updated the registry values, close Visual Studio 2013 and open it again. This time, the proper sign-in dialog should appear.

Sign in with your account, and Visual Studio 2013 will activate your license. You shouldn’t run into any issues the next time you launch it.

Open Visual Studio 2013

Once it’s installed, signed in, and activated, you can start using Visual Studio 2013. I personally like to test it by creating an empty Windows Forms project.

Once that’s done, you can open your old legacy Visual Studio projects and get back to work!

Final Thoughts

That’s it for today’s post. As it turns out, installing Visual Studio 2013 on a Windows 11 PC in 2026 is still pretty straightforward!

Now you can finally fix that old legacy project that’s been running in production for years without compatibility issues.

As always, if you have any questions or know of a better method, leave a comment below. Thanks for reading, and see you next time!

References

• Visual Studio 2013 Release Notes | Microsoft Learn
• How to enable Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2 on clients - Configuration Manager | Microsoft Learn