Since a few weeks I have had this infuriating problem.
Whenever I start VS it opens an empty environment.
I tried to change that in Options > Environment > Startup from "Empty environment" to "Start window". After pressing "OK" I restarted VS completely and reopened it. Again: a new empty environment opens.
After reinstalling VS several times now I gave up and want to know, if someone had a similar problem and knows a fix for this problem.
Visual Studio Enterprise 2019 (16.8.3)
Installed Workloads from VS-Installer:
ASP.NET and web development
Azure development
Python development
.NET desktop development
Desktop development with C++
Data storage and processing
.NET Core cross-platform development
Additional Extensions:
JetBrains ReSharper 2020.2.4
Visual Studio Tools for Tizen
*all the extensions are up-to-date
After MONTHS I finally found a solution. I basically tried to uninstall all extensions and discovered that this issue only occurs while ReSharper is installed. I didn't find anything regarding this on the internet, therefore I searched all of the options and I finally found the issue!
If you have the same issue and have ReSharper installed (currently 2020.3.3) open Visual Studio and go to Extensions/ReSharper/Options. A new window will pop up. Then navigate to Environment/Performance Guide and under the group Visual Studio preferences affecting performance you'll find the item Show empty environment at startup. Set it from Fix Silently to Ignore. Click Save and close this window.
Additionally, you have reset the specific Visual Studio option. Therefore open Tools/Options and navigate to Environment/Startup and set the On startup, open: to Start window. Click OK and restart Visual Studio to check if the Start Window now gets displayed correctly.
I have VS 2012, 2015, & 2017 installed on my machine. We also have TFS 2017 locally installed. When I get an email for a code review and click the link, for everyone else it opens up VS 2015/2017 depending on the version the other people have. For me it opens VS 2012 but fails to open up the code review. I noticed if I copy and paste that vstfs//codereview/request/... link in IE it prompts me to open an external application. In this prompt it says:
Do you want to allow this website to open a program on your computer? It then shows Program: Vs 2012 and Address: vstfs:///.... For other people under the Program setting it shows the VS selector and not a specific version.
Does anyone know where I can change this setting to use the VS selector program vs VS 2012 with this vstfs:// protocol link?
Go to the Windows settings (Default App Settings in Windows 10).
Choose Default Apps By Protocol at the bottom of the screen.
Find the VSTS/TFS protocol handler. Set it to the Visual Studio web protocol handler.
You'll have to pick the right version by the icon (if multiple are registered). Unfortunately, the title doesn't contain the version number.
I've created some automated tests using WatiN and MBunit and they run fine on my machine (running Windows 7 and VS 2010).
However, when I try running them on a virtual machine which is running Windows Server R2 2008 and IE8 my tests consistently timeout unless I am clicking into the window periodically.
IE is not in protected mode. Also each time a browser is launched the WatiN "BringToFront" method is called, but it doesn't seem to actually bring the browser to the front, it always opens behind Visual Studio 2010.
Looks like this is caused by two things, one is an IE8 bug, the workaround is to open Tools-> Internet Options -> Advanced and un-check "Show Pictures"
The other fix is to open Regedit, in the folder tree navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. Change the ForegroundFlashCount to 0, then log off and on again. (this fix is a per-user setting, so each testing user will need to do the fix)
Just installed VS2010 express for Windows Phone last night. Install went smoothly. It creates a project, compiles, and deploys the app to the emulator.
Here's the problem: When I try to "Add Reference" through the Project menu, I do not get the Add Reference dialog box. Same thing if I right click References in the solution explorer and click Add Reference. That's not all. "File...Open" and "File...Open Project" also fail to throw up an open file dialog box. When attempting any of these actions, the IDE quickly loses and regains focus. Even pressing a keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+O) causes the IDE to quickly lose and regain focus, but no open file dialog box appears.
This is what I have tried, not particularly in this order:
1. Turned off UAC
2. Monitored file and registry access using Process Monitor during a File...Open operation. File activity showed mostly "SUCCESS" with a few "FAST IO DISALLOWED" and a few "INVALID DEVICE REQUEST" results. Registry activity showed mostly "SUCCESS" with some "NAME NOT FOUND" and a few "BUFFER OVERFLOW" results.
3. Created a new, clean Windows account to run the IDE from
4. Forced a test project to add a reference to "System.Xml.Linq" by editing the ".csproj" project file. Project failed to load in the IDE.
I don't have these problems at all on 2 other Windows 7 computers with VS2010 C# express beta 2 installed. One machine is 32bit and the other 64bit, both Home Premium edition.
My system: Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit
Other Visual Studio products installed: VS2008 C# express, VS2008 C++ express
One other thing to note: Several months ago I installed the non-phone distribution of VS2010 C# express beta 2, and I had the same exact problems. Back then I chalked it up to being beta and went back to VS2008 C# express, where I do not have these issues.
Matt, if you're still reading this post, I have a solution:
Do you have the Tablet PC Input Service disabled? Enable and start it. This was suggested to me over on the MSDN forums, and it worked for me immediately. I have this service disabled, but I turned it on, fired up VS2010, and it just worked right off. I confirmed this solution by turning the service off again, starting VS2010, and noting that it breaks once again. Turned the service on once more, started VS2010, and it works perfectly. Amazing.
I do not think it's acceptable to require this particular service just for VS2010 to function correctly. Hopefully they fix this in the inevitable service pack. FYI, I had this service disabled because I turn off all services I don't require. So now I have two "wisptis.exe" tasks eating up ~8MB of RAM and starting every time I turn on the PC. Or I can shut the service off again and just resort to my previous workaround. haha
Here is a work around.
Just run wisptis.exe from command line and start the visual studio.
If you don't wanna run each and every time you restarts the computer,then just put wisptis.exe in a .bat file and move it to the startup folder,so that it will be automatically executed on each and every startup.
EDIT 1 :- Or else just press 'WIN'+'R' and type 'wisptis' and press 'Enter'.
I experienced the exact same problem. I'm running VS2010 Express on Windows 7 (x64). Re-enabling the "Tablet Input" service "fixed" the problem.
VS2010 has always worked fine, and then suddenly for no apparent reason "ctrl-O", "Add Reference", "Open Project", and other similar functions stop working.
No amount of repair/uninstall/reinstall would fix the problem.
I always disable the "Tablet Input" service on Win 7, because I use a Wacom tablet, and dislike the visual notification of (tablet) mouse clicks this service causes. VS2010 has so far been working fine in this setup with Tablet input service disabled, but then suddenly the problem arose, and I had to re-enable the "Tablet Input" service to make it go away.
I have another computer with the exact same setup - Win 7 (x64), VS2010 Express, Wacom table, and disabled "Tablet Input" service - and here VS2010 is still working just fine. Both computers also have almost identical software installed and updates installed, so I still have no idea where the difference lies.
Has anyone had more luck in finding the root cause?
I also use Power Toys, but I have not been able to correlate this installation with the problematic behavior of VS2010.
I'm having close to the same issue with the exception that my New | Project dialog works, but Add Reference and Ctrl + O just cause the interface to lose focus and regain focus without every launching the dialog. I have tried running devenv /ResetAddin and devenv /ResetSkipPkgs, but neither helped. I have UAC turned off as well. I don't experience the issue with VS2008.
Here's my setup:
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate RTM
Visual Studio 2008 Team System Developer Edition with Team Explorer 2008 and VS2008 SP1
The only addins I run:
GhostDoc
.NET Reflector
Other Related Products I run:
Microsoft Expression Studio 3
SQL Server 2008 Developer Edition with SP1
tonight I uninstalled the VS2010 Express beta 2+phone tools and installed the now final RTM VS2010 Express C#. It STILL had the problem! For kicks, I tried importing a VS2008 project because it has some extra references in the project, and I was curious how they would be handled. The project imported successfully, but compiled with errors that it couldn't find a reference for a SyndicationFeed object, even though the reference for it was successfully added to the References list upon import. I remove the reference (System.ServiceModel.Web), hold my breath, and try to Add Reference one more time. Amazingly, the Add Reference dialog pops up, I add the reference back, recompile and bingo. File...Open and File...Open Project now throw up the proper file open dialogs as well.
To be sure this isn't a fluke only related to importing an old project, I shut down VS2010, start it back up, create a brand new project and try Add Reference. It works still. The File/Project dialogs also show up. I have no idea how, but importing a VS2008 project apparently made VS2010 correct itself on my machine.
Thank you for replying to my post. After hours of Googling over the past few days, your post is the first I've seen of anyone else having this issue besides me.
I found a workaround, but it's annoying having to do this:
1. Create a new project
2. Close VS2010, don't bother saving the new project
3. Start VS2010 again, and everything works as it should. I can access the Add Reference dialog, and I can do a File...Open and Open Project from the menu and toolbar.
If I close VS2010 and start it again, it is broken once more. Performing my workaround fixes it again for that session.
Still looking for a permanent solution.
I finally figured out a work-around. If I temporarily disable the Power Tools, the original Add References dialog opens fine. After adding my references, I can enable the Power Tools again.
First of all, everything was working fine for several months:
When I tried to debug a web app with Visual Studio 2005 and Internet Explorer 7, I just click "Start Debugging", a IE window opened and the process was attached to the debugger.
But after I installed IE 8, the process was not attached automatically. I had to attach manually to be able to debug anything.
Then I discovered that to make it work correctly I had to close all other instances of IE 8 before start to debug. But I did not need to do this with IE 7.
I have Windows Vista Enterprise and everything is up to date.
Is this the correct behavior? If it is not, what I have to do to debug a web app without having to close any other IE 8 instances?
The problem is caused by IE8 creating new processes for each new tab.
This is the solution
1) Open RegEdit
2) Browse to HKEY_LOCALMACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Internet Explorer -> Main
3) Add a dword under this key called TabProcGrowth
4) Set TabProcGrowth to 0
Check out this link for the full details from Brad Sullivan
http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vsdebug/thread/e2c795cd-b7a0-4fad-b7c9-b1ca40d7302e
In summary: IE8 creates a new process for each tab. The VS2005 debugger doesn't know which process to attach to, and so doesn't attach to anything. The solution is to stop IE8 creating new process for each tab. Brad mentions that this problem is found on older versions of the VS debugger, but does not say if it works properly in VS2008 or VS2010.
Edit: If you are using Vista you need to turn off IE "Protected Mode" which is a checkbox on the Security Tab under Tools -> Internet Options.