From cf8b6c10c41fe387cf6b95c70b02ea2d4041b774 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jannis Leidel <jannis@leidel.info>
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 2026 12:32:00 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] ci: limit vs2017-workload-vctools install to parallel jobs

The Windows parallel tests compile binaries with the Visual Studio 2017 toolchain. Keep the Chocolatey install for those jobs and skip it for serial jobs that do not exercise the compiler.
---
 .github/workflows/tests.yml   |  4 ++--
 news/ci-limit-vs2017-choco.md | 20 ++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 22 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 news/ci-limit-vs2017-choco.md

diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests.yml b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
index 42224a4984..72868dc06b 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/tests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
@@ -352,8 +352,8 @@ jobs:
           CONDA_SUBDIR: win-64
 
       - name: Choco Install
-        if: runner.arch != 'ARM64'
-        # We may need the complete tooling so that cmake tests pass on windows
+        if: runner.arch != 'ARM64' && matrix.test-type == 'parallel'
+        # The parallel tests compile binaries with the Visual Studio 2017 toolchain
         run: choco install visualstudio2017-workload-vctools
 
       - name: Conda Install
diff --git a/news/ci-limit-vs2017-choco.md b/news/ci-limit-vs2017-choco.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..633db02d00
--- /dev/null
+++ b/news/ci-limit-vs2017-choco.md
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+### Enhancements
+
+* <news item>
+
+### Bug fixes
+
+* <news item>
+
+### Deprecations
+
+* <news item>
+
+### Docs
+
+* <news item>
+
+### Other
+
+* Install the Visual Studio 2017 Build Tools only for Windows test jobs that
+  exercise the compiler toolchain.