Visual Studio 2005 on Windows Vista Issue List

Running with elevated administrator permissions

The information below identifies the known issues you will face when using Visual Studio 2005 on Windows Vista. When using Visual Studio 2005, we advise you to do the following:

• Run Visual Studio with elevated administrator permissions
• Be a member of the "Administrators" group on the local machine
• Right-click the Visual Studio icon and select the "Run as administrator" option from the context menu

Note You can create a shortcut to Visual Studio and select the option to always run with elevated administrator permissions. Using this shortcut would be the equivalent of the right-click method described above.

If you use SQL Server 2005 (including the SQL Server Express Edition that comes with Visual Studio 2005), you should review Microsoft SQL Server 2005 on "Microsoft Windows Server Longhorn" or Microsoft Windows Vista.

General

Title: Add Reference dialog does not show a help button on title bar

• Description: When you open the Add Reference dialog there is no visible help button. The functionality exists but the UI element is missing.
• Workaround: Press F1.

Title: Active Directory Deployment of Visual Studio 2005 fails on Windows Vista

• Description: When a corporation deploys Visual Studio to their developer desktops using the Active Directory deployment scenario (as described here) the setup will fail because it tries to install the .NET Framework 2.0 which is already installed on Windows Vista.
• Workaround: Manually remove the check for the .NET Framework as documented in Section 5.3 of the Enterprise Network Deployment Readme. This section is located here.

Title: Exiting VC# Express may cause application crash

• Description: An AccessViolation may occur while exiting Visual C# Express.
• Workaround: None. Ensure that you save all your work prior to exiting Visual C# Express.

Title: Files double-clicked in Windows Explorer may not open automatically in Visual Studio

• Description: When a user double-clicks on a Visual Studio associated file in the Windows Explorer, Visual Studio may only launch and not open the file. Double-clicking on them a second time will open the file in Visual Studio.
• Workaround: Open file from within Visual Studio, or double-click twice on it

Title: Some command line switches require administrative permissions

• Description: The DevEnv.exe command line switches /setup, /installvstemplates, and /associatefiles require administrative permissions for proper operation. Invoking these commands from without elevated administrator permissions could result in data loss.
• Workaround: Run a command window with elevated administrator permissions and then start DevEnv.exe with the required command line switch.

Title: The Visual Studio Team Foundation Team Build option will not install on Windows Vista unless IIS is present

• Description: In order to build Web projects Team Build must have permissions to compile ASP.NET apps. The current Team Build setup configures these permissions via a call to aspnet_regiis. On Windows Vista this call fails when IIS is not present and this causes setup to fail and perform a roll-back.
• Workaround: Customer must install IIS before installing Team Build. Since IIS is not necessary they may uninstall it after Team Build is installed.

Title: When installing any Visual Studio Express product the BITS download service will fail due to permission issues.

• Description: Visual Studio Express Editions use the BITS service to download the install packages. Anyone attempting the install will need to give elevate administrator permissions to the setup utility to run it. However these elevated permissions do not flow onto BITS so the download fails when a standard user runs as admin.
• Workaround: Manually download the install files as described here or run the install from an account with administrative permissions.

Title: Visual Studio products fail to install in XP compatibility mode.

• Description: All Visual Studio products will fail to install with an error message saying “You need to install Windows XP SP2 before you install Visual Studio”. This happens due to the way detection logic is structured. We do not recommend installing VS in compatibility mode and there is no workaround to this scenario.
• Workaround: None

Title: Upgrading to Windows Vista may result in loss of New Project Dialog templates

• Description: After upgrading to Windows Vista, various project templates in the New Project dialog may be missing.
• Workaround: Open an command prompt with elevated administrator permissions and run the command “devenv.exe /installvstemplates.”

Title: Opening the Add-in/Macros Security option in the Tools dialog will hang Visual Studio

• Description: When a user opens the tools dialog and then selects the Add-in/Macros leaf of the Environment node, Visual Studio will hang.
• Workaround: None

Title: Just-In-Time (JIT) Debugging of an elevated process will fail

• Description: Elevated processes cannot be JIT Debugged by VS 2005. This includes system processes, such as IIS, and applications started by selecting ‘Run as administrator’.
• Workaround: The debugger must be attached manually before the debugger will catch unhandled exceptions or user break points (System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Break, __debugbreak, etc).

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Office

Development

Title: Browse web services on local machine

• Description: Attempting to browse the local machine for web services will generate the following error message:
  There was an error while enumerating services on local machine:
  Active Directory Services cannot find the web server. A possible cause for this is an incompatibility between versions of Internet Information Server (IIS) on the client and the server. Another possible cause is that IIS is not installed on the local machine, or the user identity under which you are running may not have permissions to view websites on this machine.
• Workaround: You will need to run Visual Studio with elevated administrator permissions.

Debugging

Title: Catching exception with the debugger is slow

• Description: When user code generates an exception the debugger may perform slowly in catching the exception.
• Workaround: None. The exception will be caught it may just take some time.

Title: Attaching/detaching with the profile may stop producing results

• Description: Occasionally the profiler may stop producing results when the developer attaches and detaches it from a process.
• Workaround: None. Shut down Visual Studio and restart it.

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Smart Devices

Development

Title: “Not enough storage” error occurs when you open Property Pages in Japanese versions of Visual Studio

• Description: “Not enough storage” error occurs when you open Property Pages in the Japanese versions of Visual Studio.
• Workaround: None.

Title: After upgrading to Windows Vista upgrade, the New Project dialog names for Windows Mobile 5.0 nodes are changed for managed projects.

• Description: After upgrading to Windows Vista the project nodes for Windows Mobile 5.0 may have their names changed. No functionality is lost but the names are not clear. For example, the names “Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC” and “Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone” are changed to “PPC” and “SP” respectively.
• Workaround: No functionality has been lost, just select respective name for the new projects.

Title: Visual Studio fails to create native C++ projects

• Description: When a developer tries to create a native C++ Smart Devices application Visual Studio repeatedly displays the 'New Project' dialog and can't proceed forward.
• Workaround: This workaround requires editing the registry. This process can cause considerable harm to a machine and it is recommended that you perform a full backup prior to this action. To solve the problem, run RegEdit and located the registry key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\PreApproved”. Right click on the key and add a new key. Use “{D245F352-3F45-4516-B1E6-04608DA126CC}" as the key name.

Title: Using Remote Tools on Windows Vista

• Description: Even if you run Visual Studio with elevated administrator permissions, the Remote Tools will run as normal user, unless you explicitly run them elevated. For example, if Visual Studio is running with elevated administrator permissions and you Connect to Device, start a Remote Tool (e.g., File Explorer), and then select the same device, a message will appear that says, "Error: The current VMID is in use. Wait for the other application to exit."
• Workaround: Start the Remote Tools using elevated administrator permissions.

Debugging

Title: Cannot Cradle the Emulator in Windows Vista

• Description: In Windows Vista, ActiveSync-over-DMA fails and thus the emulator cannot be cradled
• Workaround: None

Title: Device Emulator Manager (DEM) UI Corrupted when aborting the emulator

• Description: DEM UI becomes corrupted after multiple connections and aborts.
• Workaround: Exit DEM and re-launch it to refresh the UI.

Deployment

Title: SQL Server Mobile Edition databases created on Windows XP or older operating systems (and device emulators) do not work on Windows Vista and vice versa.

• Description: Databases created on Windows XP or on Smart Devices cannot be read on Windows Vista.
  Similarly SQL Mobile Edition databases created on Windows Vista cannot be read/written to a Device or Windows XP.
• Workaround: When working on Windows Vista you will need to make a copy of the existing database to enable you to build an application that uses it. If you plan to use the database on a device or in the Windows Mobile emulator you will need to use a database created on Windows XP.

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Web

Development

Title: Dataset Designer extremely slow on Windows Vista

• Description: The Dataset Designer appears extremely slow on Windows Vista. This is due to a change in the way Windows Vista supports Windows painting and renders the designer mostly unusable.
• Workaround: None

Title: Browse web services on local machine may fail without the IIS6 Compatibility Layer installed

• Description: Attempting to browse the local machine for web services will generate the following error message:
  There was an error while enumerating services on local machine:
  Active Directory Services cannot find the web server. A possible cause for this is an incompatibility between versions of Internet Information Server (IIS) on the client and the server. Another possible cause is that IIS is not installed on the local machine, or the user identity under which you are running may not have permissions to view websites on this machine.
• Workaround: Install IIS6 Compatibility layer on IIS7.

Title: Creating a new website for IIS 7 generates misleading error messages

• Description: When a developer uses the New Website dialog to target IIS7 for a website, the user gets several misleading error messages about FrontPage Server Extensions not being configured. These error messages are misleading because the issue is actually the need for the IIS 6 Compatibility Layer to be installed.
• Workaround: The user needs to installs IIS 6 Compatibility Layer.

Title: Localhost tab of Open Website provides misleading error messages under default install of IIS 7

• Description: When a developer uses the Open Website dialog to target IIS7 as localhost, the user gets several misleading error messages about FrontPage Server Extensions not being configured. These error messages are misleading because the issue is actually the need for the IIS 6 Compatibility Layer to be installed.
• Workaround: The user needs to installs IIS 6 Compatibility Layer.

Title: Opening a web solution with many sites is much slower on Windows Vista

• Description: Users with web solutions that refer to many sites (typically 20 or more) will see a large decrease in performance when opening the solution. The solution will open but it may take some time.
• Workaround: None

Title: Visual Studio fails to set permissions on App_Data folder

• Description: For Web applications that use a SQL Express database, Visual Studio will fail to set the correct permissions on App_Data. This results in a permissions failure when binding to the data when the page is run.
• Workaround: The users will need to manually set the read/write permissions on the App_Data folder for the account running the web application.

Title: Using FTP connections in Visual Studio on a Windows Vista Client frequently fails

• Description: Visual Studio provides developers with the ability to use FTP as the connectivity transport between the developer machine and the host for the web site project. When using Windows Vista as a client these connections become unreliable and will result in frequent performance degradations and loss of connections.
• Workaround: None

Debugging

Title: Attaching/detaching with the profile may stop producing results

• Description: Occasionally the profiler may stop producing results when the developer attaches and detaches it from a process.
• Workaround: None. Shut down Visual Studio and restart it.

Title: ASP.NET Unit tests may fail with IIS running on Windows Vista

• Description: When running IIS on Windows Vista ASP.NET unit tests may frequently fail. This occurs because IIS runs differently on Windows Vista and the ASP.NET Host Adapter fails.
• Workaround: Developers may be able to run ASP.NET Unit tests by changing the target web server to the included ASP.NET Development Server rather than IIS.

Title: Debugging Web applications on IIS may fail without the IIS 6 Compatibility Layer installed

• Description: ASP.NET Debugging against a Web application running on IIS 7 may fail without informing the developer as to why.
• Workaround: Developers should install the IIS 6 Compatibility Layer for IIS 7.

Deployment

Title: Users are unable to install Web setup MSI on Windows Vista

• Description: Users may find they are unable to install a Web setup MSI on a Windows Vista machine without generating any useful error messages.
• Workaround: Users must first install the IIS 6 Compatibility layer

Title: Using FTP connections in Visual Studio on a Windows Vista Client frequently fails

• Description: Visual Studio provides developers with the ability to use FTP as the connectivity transport between the developer machine and the host for the web site project. When using Windows Vista as a client these connections become unreliable and will result in frequent performance degradations and loss of connections.
• Workaround: None

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Windows

Development

Title: Dataset Designer extremely slow on Windows Vista

• Description: The Dataset Designer appears extremely slow on Windows Vista. This is due to a change in the way Windows Vista supports Windows painting and renders the designer mostly unusable.
• Workaround: None

Title: Browse web services on local machine may fail without the IIS6 Compatibility Layer installed

• Description: Attempting to browse the local machine for web services will generate the following error message:
  There was an error while enumerating services on local machine:
  Active Directory Services cannot find the web server. A possible cause for this is an incompatibility between versions of Internet Information Server (IIS) on the client and the server. Another possible cause is that IIS is not installed on the local machine, or the user identity under which you are running may not have permissions to view websites on this machine.
• Workaround: Install IIS6 Compatibility layer on IIS7.

Title: Media Player OCX control does not work in tool windows created with CreateToolWindow()

• Description: Windows Media Player OCX controls will throw an out of range exception when used with tool windows created with the API CreateToolWindow().
• Workaround: Developers should create the tool window with the API CreateToolWindow2().

Title: Project imports for Windows Workflow Foundation result in unexpected security warning

• Description: MSBuild safe import checking does not support REG_EXPAND_SZ entries, resulting in unexpected security warnings.
• Workaround: Click through security dialog.

Title: Some SDK Tools may not run as expected

• Description: A developer attempting to run some of the SDK tools will run into cases where they do not act as expected yet issue no errors. This is due to the tools not having the ability to pass on elevation requests.
• Workaround: Open a command window with elevated permissions and then execute the required SDK tool.

Title: Visual Studio crashes when deleting menu items with sub menus

• Description: Developers with projects that use the older MainMenu control can crash Visual Studio when they remove menu items that contain sub-menu items as a group (i.e. deleting a group of menu items that all contain sub-menu items).
• Workaround: Visual Studio 2005 provided a new menu control 'ToolStrip' and developers are recommended to update to that control. Additionally developer can also just remove one menu item at a time.

Title: SDK Quickstart configuration fails

• Description: Users who try to run the Quickstart configuration application from the installed HTML page will find it fails.
• Workaround: None. Individual samples can be setup but there is no combined configurations/setup ability.

Debugging

Title: Attaching/detaching with the profile may stop producing results

• Description: Occasionally the profiler may stop producing results when the developer attaches and detaches it from a process.
• Workaround: None. Shut down Visual Studio and restart it.

Title: Trace profiling fails on a managed C++ console application

• Description: Trace profiling fails for managed C++ console applications.
• Workaround: None.

Title: Launching the vsjitdebugger with a process name fails on Windows Vista

• Description: Developers who are trying to automatically launch the vsjitdebugger with a process name will find that it fails on Windows Vista
• Workaround: Developers can determine process ID and then launch the vsjitdebugger using the process ID instead.

Title: Code coverage binaries are not marked as 32-bit only causing them to crash on wow64

• Description: The code coverage binaries are not marked as 32-bit only and will cause a crash when run on the 64-bit version of Windows Vista.
• Workaround: None. Code coverage works on 32-bit platforms if the developer has one available.

Title: Debugger hangs while debugging openmp parallelized for loop

• Description:
• Workaround: None

Title: Setting up remote debugging fails to configure the firewall on Windows Vista

• Description: When developers set up remote debugging on Windows Vista the setup does not configure the required entries in the Windows Firewall exceptions list.
• Workaround: Developers will need to manually configure the Windows Firewall to enable remote debugging.

Title: Remote Debugger fails or is unusable on Windows Vista Starter Edition

• Description: Using remote debugging on a Windows Vista Starter Edition machine either fails or generates multiple error messages.
• Workaround: None.

Title: Developers will be unable to set RPC stepping as administrator

• Description: The Visual Studio documentation states that this option is available for developers to set but when running on Windows Vista this option is actually unavailable.
• Workaround: This is a documentation error and does not need a workaround.

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