Studio 2015 Portable — Visual

Official VS 2015 received updates until October 2020 (mainstream) and extended support until October 2025. Pirated repacks freeze at a buggy RTM version.

Conclusion: Do not download a pre-made “portable” VS 2015. It is not worth the risk.

Create a lightweight Linux VM (or Windows 10 LTSC VM) with Visual Studio 2015 pre-installed. Export the VM to an external SSD. Run VirtualBox Portable Launcher from USB.

Steps:

This is the most reliable “portable” Visual Studio 2015 in existence. It works on any host that can run VirtualBox.

VS 2015 installs several services:

These require installation privileges and won’t run from a portable drive. Visual Studio 2015 Portable

SharpDevelop was an open-source IDE that supported .NET Framework up to 4.5.2. Version 5.1 can be run from a USB drive with no installation. It opens VS 2015 solutions (limited compatibility) and supports C# / VB.NET / F#.

Status: Discontinued in 2017. No support for C# 6/7 features. But for legacy .NET 4.5 code, it works.

If you absolutely need to build VS 2015 projects on the go, here is the safest, most legal, and most functional approach: Official VS 2015 received updates until October 2020

Xamarin Studio (the older version, not the modern VS Mac) could run portably and opened some VS 2015 .sln files. Now discontinued.

Unlike the standard installer, a portable edition behaves as a standalone application: