Can Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package be freely redistributed

Question

I am planning to use py2exe to make an application developped with Python 2.6.

It seems that my app need the VC redistribuables : http://www.py2exe.org/index.cgi/Tutorial#Step5

I've read this tutorial and the redistribuables license agreement and I am not sure if I can freely redistribute these files with my program. (I don't have VS2008 license)

Can I bundle the redistribs into an installer and make the installation transparent for the user or do they have to download the files by their own from Microsoft website?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

I think you should be fine if you simply include the installation of vcredist_x86.exe into your installation procedure (according to the document you linked to):

Either you can instruct your users to download and run this themselves, or you could create an installer for your application (see Step 6 below), that includes vcredist_x86.exe (which is itself redistributable by anyone), and then run that as part of your application installation

Mind you that I'm not a lawyer and thus this is not legal advice.