Visual Studio - Using different versions for the same project - visual-studio-2010

I recently started a new job, and got a machine with Visual Studio 2013 Proffesional installed. This would be great, except the colleague that I'm working with is using Visual Studio 2010. As far as I know, there is no way to work on the same project (or solution), without having quite a lot of issues, is this correct?
And if so, is it still possible to download Visual Studio 2010 (from a reliable source)? I cannot seem to find it anywhere in my MSDN subscriber downloads. All I can find is a stuff like service packs, tools, etc. Did they terminate the support of it?

You work on visual studio 2013 but there are option to select which version of visual studio you want select 2010 and run your project.

You should be able to open Visual Studio 2013 solutions in 2010, if you install Visual Studio 2010 SP1. There is a possibility that some project types won't be supported, but the solution should open.

Related

Should I install Visual Studio 2017 beside Visual Studio 2015 or should I first uninstall Visual Studio 2015 and then install Visual Studio 2017?

I am currently using Visual Studio 2015 for programming ASP.NET Core applications. I have the following questions regarding installing Visual Studio 2017:
What is considered to be best practice and/or cleanest method?
Should I install Visual Studio 2017 beside Visual Studio 2015?
Should I first uninstall Visual Studio 2015 and all .NET Core dependencies and then install Visual Studio 2017?
Are there any tools that would ensure a clean uninstall of Visual Studio 2015?
From page Visual Studio 2017 Platform Targeting and Compatibility
Compatibility with Previous Releases Installation
You can install and use Visual Studio 2017 alongside previous versions of Visual Studio, including Visual Studio 2015, Visual Studio 2013, and Visua Studio 2012.
So yes. you can install them without any problem.
VS 2013, VS 2015, and VS 2017 all work well side-by-side. VS 2012 can be a little dodgy on Windows 10, but should also work side-by-side. In theory VS 2010 should also work side-by-side with those, but I've run into quirks in the past with them interfering with one-another.
Projects should round-trip between 2015 and 2017 generally, although there are some one-way upgrade scenarios.
Note that if you really just need the older compiler toolset for some reason, you can also install VS 2017 and select the optional component Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.140 which installs the older v140 compiler which you can still use with the VS 2017 IDE. That said, there's not a lot of reason to do this since the VS 2015 & VS 2017 C++ standard libraries are binary compatible so you can mix them in a project.
See this blog post for information on VS 2017.
It sounds like you have done some projects in 2015 already, so you will probably want to keep it.
Once you open a project in a new version, it will try to upgrade the project and then you can't go back.
However, if you have multiple versions installed at the same time, when you try to open a project, say, from Windows Explorer, it will open it with the "Visual Studio Version Checker" and will look at the project file and determine which version to open it in.
Bottom line, if you have the hard drive space, there is no reason to not install them alongside each other.
In the past, it was recommended to install them in sequential order if you are installing multiple versions, but it doesn't sound like this is an issue for you and I don't know if that is even a problem anymore as it has been several versions since I have had to deal with that.
Good luck!
Personally, I would keep both - there have been multiple times through the years where you have compatibility issues and NEED to have the prior version(s). I've also had old project that will not upgrade and I've gone back and reinstalled old VS versions.
If you have no reason to keep VS2015 in your computer I would suggest uninstalling it.
I uninstalled VS2015 after installing VS2017 and later noticing that I was still using an old taskbar shortcut to VS2015.
So I was inadvertently still using VS2015.
Maybe some special cases require keeping older versions of VS along side the new version, but for the rest of us, I say, uninstall!
VS 2015 is the last version that is supported by Installshield LE.
If you have a need for building installers in the future, it will be useful to have VS 2015
1,2,3. Visual Studio 2017 has more features over 2015 and it contains 2015's current features so you don't need 2015 alongside 2017. Just stick with 2017. And I don't think you will have any problems while opening 2013 and 2015 projects with Visual Studio 2017.
Uninstall Tool is a good tool to use. It cleanses all the leftover files and registry entries after running the original uninstallation wizard and even tells you how many files will be cleaned after the required reboot.
For people continuing to read this, I have Visual Studio Professional 2008 (For Windows Embedded 6.5), 2010, 2015, 2017 and they all work even if open at the same time.
Edit: As stated in other answers, they need to be installed from oldest version to newest.

How To Convert Visual Studio 2010 project to Visual Studio 2015

I have a project from VS Studio 2010 that I want to work with in VS 2015. When I start this Project with VS 2015 I receive an error saying something like "compatibility-Error (Version)".
How can I successfully convert a Visual Studio 2010 project to use with Visual Studio 2015?
Without you going into any more detail about the actual error. (error numbers / screenshot) it will be very hard for any of us to give a real answer. Therefore I am going to suggest you take a look at Troubleshooting Unsuccessful Project Upgrades.
Something else to check out might be the Porting, Migrating, and Upgrading Visual Studio Projects guide
One of the key things mentioned in the 2nd link I provided is:
The following list describes support in Visual Studio 2015 and Visual Studio 2013 for projects that were created in Visual Studio 2012 or Visual Studio 2010 SP
Therefore I'd recommend upgrading the 2010 version to SP1 first. (if this is still installed that is)
One further thing to note is that if you keep the old version of Visual studio installed you can import a project which is made with an older version and skip the update. Visual studio 2015 will then use parts of the older version itself to open the project.
For details you can read How to: Upgrade Visual C++ Projects to Visual Studio 2015 page and the equally useful Installing Visual Studio Versions Side-by-Side page.
It appears that there are issues when moving from VS 2010.Net to VS 2015.Net and may require that you build the project from scratch and copy the code over. VS 2015 requires a Namespace. There are a number of designer issues on control that require the style page be used since various attributes have been removed. Something still, however, do work but you need to review the HTML, specifically things like Font and alignment. While it's a pain it isn't a big deal since it requires mostly cut and paste.
If you are having issues converting web projects the projects may have originally been created as a "web site" rather than a "web Project" . Try opening the application as a web site and see what happens. At least that may help get you to the point you can actually get to the code to convert it in VS 2015. Hope this helps.
Try to Right-click the solution, then select "Re-target solution".

Visual studio 2003 solutions to Visual Studio 2013 solutions

My question is about the different versions of Visual Studio and an effective way to update the web applications or websites that were created in visual studio 2003 to visual studio 2010 all to visual studio 2013. Most of the solution files on the web server for the various applications or websites have not been updated since 204. But some of the .aspx.vb files have been updated in 2012. Not sure if there is a missing .sln file or that the files were all updated manually using notepad or something? I need to update the content of several of these projects and not sure where to begin. Looking for the most effective way to update these files. Anyone with experience transitioning from different versions of Visual Studio working with visual basic may have these same questions. Some of these include crystal reports from visual studio 2005.
Have you opened the .sln file in VS2013? I know when I was transitioning projects from VS2008 to VS2013 it prompted me to convert them when I tried to open it in VS2013. When and if there were any issues it showed you what didn't match up and what might be obsolete. Might be a good starting point if you haven't already tired.

VS 2013 Express for Desktop wont open vcxproj project files

I am trying to open the Direct3D Tutorial Win32 Samples with VS 2013 Express for Windows Desktop. To my surprise it claims that the individuals projects in the solution each cannot be opened because their project types (.vcxproj) are not supported by this version of the application.
Does anyone know why the vcxproj files cannot be opened, or how I could diagnose and repair the root cause of the problem?
Edit: I can also not open the vcxproj files in Mike Farnsworth's Rayito project.
It means that the projects were created in another version of Visual Studio.
Try to upgrade the current Visual Studio tools by selecting the Project menu or right-click the solution, and then selecting Upgrade Solution.
Alternatively you could use Visual Studio 2012 Express Edition to see if that resolves the problem.
Windows Dev Center indicates that Visual Studio 2012 is required.
Hope this helps
Neither of the other answers seemed to help.
I uninstalled visual studio. I uninstalled SQL server. I reinstalled visual studio. Now it loads C++ projects correctly.
I understand a previous install of visual studio can cause the problem I was having. Apparently so can installing SQL server Express prior to installing Visual Studio 2013 Express.

Can you install VS2013 alongside VS2012 without issues?

I cam across this question here on SE:
Can Visual Studio 2012 be installed side-by-side w/ Visual Studio 2010?
According to one comment with a good amount of upvotes, having 2010 and 2012 installed at the same time can present issues. I then came across this MSDN page about 2013:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh266747.aspx
If you use Visual Studio 2013 together with Visual Studio 2012 or Visual Studio 2010 SP1, you can [blah blah]
That suggests that 2013 can be safely installed along with VS2012. Can anyone confirm?
Take a look at Brian Harry´s Blog post announcing Visual Studio 2013.
VS 2013 can be installed side by side with previous versions of Visual Studio or, if you have a VS 2013 pre-release, it can be installed straight over top of the pre-release. TFS 2013 cannot be installed side by side but can also be installed over top of either a previous version (TFS 2012 or TFS 2010) or a pre-release.
Looks like you can, yes.
You can install this version of Visual Studio on a computer that
already has an earlier version installed.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms246609%28v=vs.120%29.aspx
Only issue I can see is during uninstallation, where the file associations may get lost.
I was having two installation on my computer. Really no problems.
From personal experience, I've come across multiple issues with using Visual Studio 2012 and prior, while a VS2013 installation exists on a machine.
Some of the issues include built executables failing to launch (double clicking .exe does nothing, but debugging them in VS launches them), and inability to compile solutions that mix C# and C++ projects.
I would avoid 2013 until these issues are resolved, as just having it installed on a machine breaks older code, even if you don't use VS2013.
There are some minor (compatibility) issues between using both VS2010 and VS2012 on the same Solution, but simply having VS2012 installed on your machine won't effect anything in VS2010.
There may be compatibility issues with 2013 Community edition. I had VS 2012 Ultimate and VS 2013 Express installed and working without any issue, but as soon as I installed VS 2013 Community, my VS 2012 Ultimate install has been behaving unusually. When I first open VS 2012 U, there is a really long load time. When I perform some action (open a file, select a menu option, anything actually) I have to minimize and maximize VS 2012 U for the screen to refresh. I am still trying to figure it out myself - so if anyone has a solution, please share.

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