I strongly doubt, though, Illustrator installs "Visual C". The runtime DLLs, yeah, that I buy. They are mandatory for everything written *using* Visual C; but I don't think you will find the compiler, editor, and debugger "installed" by Adobe.

With that said,

> If I remove VisualC++, it stops doing this, but then I can not open illustrator, am given errors, and told to re-install.

.. how did you "remove" it? Deleted the DLL files? That's generally a *very*, *very* bad idea -- you can't 'selectively' delete crucial parts of the program package. Hence the suggestion to re-install the entire package.

this is a user to user forum, don't expect an answer from Adobe.

The answers I have received so far do not make it seem like this is common, which is of concern.

 

Larry said:

     "AI plugins are written in C++. They won't work without it."

Mylenium said:

     "It's bog standard Windows stuff and pretty much any program uses it, not just Adobe"

Carlos said:

     "same reason you have guts, without them you wouldn't be able to function either."

Jongware said:

     "They are mandatory for everything written *using* Visual C"

And all that doesn't make it look common to you?

ok, fair enough, while you wait for an official answer, here's mine, I don't have CS6, that's probably why I don't have the C++ 2010 runtimes, but that's more speculation.

The redistibutables are run-time files and most if not all programs that were created using MS Visual Studio will add these files to your system so the program will run. Normally when the program is installed it will check for those files verifying they are there and are the correct version, if it does not find them and only then will the app either install it for you or provide a link so you can install it your self, Majority of the time it will install it.

Odds are everyone has at least one program that requires it, removing these files will make any program that needs those files unable to run.

If these files are removed, they can be downloaded from Microsoft's website in the downloads section, The version that is suppose to be compatable with Windows 8 should have the year 2012 on the file name. {I state the word should, as I have not tested it as I don't have the lastest version of visual studio or windows 8}