How to continue using your old Cloud-hosted environment deployed prior to 10.0.16 | Error : "No user exists for *" during 10.0.17 update

As you might have already noticed, Tier-1 / cloud-hosted environments are going through a few changes. 

From 10.0.13 onwards there is a dependency on .NET framework 4.7.2 for the X developer tools. You could however getaway with it till 10.0.17 if you install .NET framework 4.7.2

You might come across an error during update related to "vswhere". you can install it using PowerShell Package management. 

Find-Package -Name vswhere -source nuget.org | Install-Package

But from 10.0.17 onwards you can't get away with the above workarounds since support for Visual studio 2015 is being deprecated, and the recommendation from Microsoft is to re-deploy the VM's so that the new Visual studio 2017 is available with latest version of developer tools installed.

So, If you are one of those people like me who has too many important "stuff" in your Tier-1 environment and can't just delete it and deploy a new one -

1. Before you apply 10.0.17, Just download Visual studio 2017 Professional.
2. Once the installation is completed (you will be prompted for restart), install the X developer tools. (The VSIX file is located in the DevToolsService\Scripts folder of the binary hotfix package)
3. Open Visual studio 2017 and verify if you're able to view the application explorer & Dynamics 365 menu.

You can now apply 10.0.17 update and keep your important Tier-1 VM without deploying a new one :-)

This article represents only my opinion and does not reflect the opinion or view of my company or Microsoft and recommended best practices.