Visual C++ 1.5 was released in December 1993, included MFC 2.5, and added OLE 2.0 and ODBC support to MFC.

The Phar Lap 286 DOS Extender Lite was also included. Included the ability to build both DOS and Windows applications, an optimizing compiler, a source profiler, and the Windows 3.1 SDK. It was Cfront 2.1 compliant and available in two editions:

Visual C++ 1.0, which included MFC 2.0, was the first version of ‘Visual’ C++, released in February 1993.

Added built-in support for C++ and MFC (Microsoft Foundation Class Library) 1.0. It added the Programmer's Workbench IDE, global flow analysis, a source browser, and a new debugger, and included an optional C++ front end.

C 5.1 released in 1988 allowed compiling programs for OS/2 1.x.

Microsoft Fortran and the first 32-bit compiler for 80386 were also part of this project.

C 5.0 added loop optimizations and ‘huge memory model’ ( arrays bigger than 64 KB) support.

C 4.0 added optimizations and CodeView, a source-level debugger.

It was being used inside Microsoft (for Windows and Xenix development) in early 1984. This version intended compatibility with K&R and the later ANSI standard.

C 3.0 was the first version developed inside Microsoft.

Microsoft C 1.0, based on Lattice C, was Microsoft's first C product in 1983.

The Visual C++ compiler is still known as Microsoft C/C++ and as of the release of Visual C++ 2015 Update 2, is on version 8.0. There was also a Microsoft QuickC 2.5 and a Microsoft QuickC for Windows 1.0. The predecessor to Visual C++ was called Microsoft C/C++. These Visual C++ redistributable and runtime packages are mostly installed for standard libraries that many applications use. These packages are often installed independently of applications, allowing multiple applications to make use of the package while only having to install it once. Many applications require redistributable Visual C++ runtime library packages to function correctly. It features tools for developing and debugging C++ code, especially code written for the Windows API, DirectX and. MSVC is proprietary software it was originally a standalone product but later became a part of Visual Studio and made available in both trialware and freeware forms. Microsoft Visual C++ ( MSVC) is a compiler for the C, C++ and C++/CX programming languages by Microsoft. English, Chinese (Simplified & Traditional), Czech, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish, Turkish

What is microsoft vc redist package