why so many redistributables?

[Nemmyy]

this doesn't involve programming, but it does involve c++ so i put it here.
How come under programs i have six version of microsoft visual C++? Does it install again every time i install a new game or something? can i uninstall the 2005 versions?
thanks

[MrD.]

They are installations of various versions of the MSVC runtime DLLs.

Different applications built using MSVC will need different versions of the runtime to run depending on which version they were built against.

Do not remove them unless you know for sure that no application will ever need to use that version, which I guess you don't. It's not like they're taking up much space anyway.

[Nemmyy]

Thanks for the response. I was just curious if i could get rid of the 05's...to me it would be logical to only need a new version like my 08 and have it backwards compatible.

[MrD.]

It might be possible to remove some of the older 05 ones, and some of the older 08 ones; however 05 and 08 are two separate beasts and aren't really properly compatible. I still wouldn't recommend removing any of those though, although if anything did go wrong you can just download them from the Microsoft website here and here.

[Nemmyy]

I guess I'll just leave it then. If i decide to do something i'll just create a system restore point beforehand. Thanks again, I'd +rep you but i dont have enough posts