Why is Visual Studio continuously calling QueryOpen on my csproj files? - visual-studio-2010

I was trying to work out while compiles are taking so long, so I started “Process Monitor” and got a few unexpected results.
It shows that even when Visual Studio is not building it is continuously making the QueryOpen system call on each C# project file. As we have about 100 project files in the solution is the considerable activity that I don’t understand the need for.
(I also have Reshaper installed, if it makes a difference)

Might be a little late, but I thought it still makes sense for others having the same problem:
See this thread. Obviously, Resharper might be the culprit if you have multiple VS instances running. However, I am having the same problem without Resharper... Might also be some other addon or VS itself.

Related

TFS: Get latest causes slow project reloading

We're working with a solution which has multiple projects which references NuGet packages from other solutions.
Every time we do get latest from the TFS server on the solution, Visual Studio (2015) starts reloading each project in the solution which takes a really long time. Now this wasn't always the case, since this started happening only a few weeks back (the solution is a year old).
We have other solutions which were already experiencing this problem and our solution is to close the solution, then do get latest, then reload the project which is much, much faster.
Can anybody explain why this is happening and how to fix this issue?
This has been reported as a bug to MSFT, see Slow project reloading & Reload of projects is slow after call to TFS to get latest changeset. It seems your project files are updated from outside VS, which causes VS to load all them. More details please see the reply from VS IDE team:
Main culprit is, your project files are being updated from outside
VS, which causes VS to load each of them one by one. This is
extremely taxing process and it happens on the main UI thread. Hence,
this ASL logic is on-by-default to alleviate unresponsive solution
loads. Essentially, you’re pointing out a limitation in our ASL logic
that we hadn’t considered. This will be considered for a future
release, thank you.
In the meantime, one way to mitigate the problem would be to force
solution reload by touching the solution file, the *.sln file, which
will trigger ASL to kick in, basically VS thinking you’re doing full
solution load and it will optimize responsiveness time as much as
possible.
Ulzii Luvsanbat
Visual Studio IDE Team
Please try these steps:
Open Visual Studio installer and install the most recent available update for 2017 version.
Open %localappdata%/Microsoft/Team Foundation/7.0/cache and delete all files, then restart Visual Studio and retry.

Visual Studio project execution stopped shortly after starting

Yesterday I wanted to continue working on a project of mine, so I started Visual Studio and asked it to run the project to remind myself, what was already implemented and what wasn't.
The project got built and started, but seemed to quit right away. No error message, nothing.
No matter what I did, whether I rebuilt the project or cleaned it, nothing changed.
This didn't make sense, since the last time I tested the project, it worked perfectly (and I didn't modify anything in the code since then)
So, I assumed I had a hidden bug somewhere in the code, that just didn't show up previously.
I put a Breakpoint somewhere near the beginning of the code, and ran the project.
As expected, Visual Studio paused the execution at the Breakpoint and highlighted it.
I decided to set another Breakpoint somewhere later in the code and continue execution, but before I could even move my mouse, the project stopped.
Restarting Visual Studio didn't help, but restarting the PC did. Therefore, I'm assuming that something on my system was terminating my project, shortly after execution begun.
Now my question is: What exactly happened, and especially: why did it happen?
The problem came back while I was writing this question. I don't feel like restarting my PC every couple of hours...
I really appreciate the time you took reading this and I look forward to your answers.
I'm aware that I'm answering my own question, but since I've solved it myself, I thought others might want to know how I did it (for the sake of future generations)
The thing is: I've recently added Visual C++ to Visual C# before Visual C# started having problems.
So I deduced, that maybe the installer for Visual Studio messed up with something and decided to reinstall Visual Studio.
Problem solved.
So: if your projects stop without warning even while paused on a Breakpoint and you've changed something in your Visual Studio installation (like added Visual C++ in my case), you might need to reinstall the whole thing.
Luckily, the Visual Studio installer offers a "Reinstall" option, so you don't need to uninstall and reinstall manually.
I found about this solution, after talking to a more experienced colleague. I just wish I asked him first. Still appreciate your efforts in the matter, though.
EDIT:
I recently noticed a similar bug acting up for C++ programs this time, where the window border would be outlined in red. The thing is: it's not Visual Studio's fault, but in fact Avast Antivirus' fault. More specifically, its Sandbox mode.
So, if for any reason, you notice programs quitting without crashing, shortly after starting and their window border having a red outline, you're very likely using Avast Antivirus and should deactivate the Sandbox mode.
Happens to me from time to time.
Sometimes closing and opening VS helps, sometimes you have to restart the computer.
I assume it must be related to some DLL or something that is loaded into memory and corrupt, or something like VS loosing the reference to it, and not unloading it correctly/replacing it.
I also once had this strange bug, where I started VS, just like any other day, and my project crashes instantly with some H_RESULT error (some DLL related Error) upon run. After having spent around 1hour searching for the source of the problem, I went into the reference section, and what did I see there : the worst possible circular reference ever : my business project had a reference to ... itself ! The kind of stuff you could not do if you wanted to.
The weirdest part of this, must of been that VS managed to compile the project, and it only crashed while trying to run it ...

Compile on-the-fly in Visual Studio 2008 very slow

I'm experiencing some performance problems. When I edit a file, Visual Studio 2008 performs a background (on-the-fly) compilation and then, it updates the error list. During this time, the cursor in the file editor disappears, and the keys I press to move or type more character are buffered.
Once the background compilation is finished, the changes are reflected in the editor (1 - 2 seconds). Every time I edit a file, which happens often, this happens.
How can I fix this problem? If this is not possible, can I disable this automatic build?
I had an odd performance-related issue today. My Microsoft Visual Studio seemed to be taking far too long to perform even the simplest of operations. I Googled around and tried a few ideas that people had such as disabling add-ins or clearing Visual Studio’s recent projects list but those suggestions didn’t seem to solve the problem. I remembered that the Windows SysInternals website had a tool called Process Monitor that would sniff registry and file accesses by any running program.
It seemed to me that Visual Studio was up to something and Process Monitor should help me figure out what it was. I downloaded the most recent version, and after fiddling around a bit with its display filters, ran it and to my horror, I saw that Visual Studio was so slow because it was accessing the more than 10,000 folders in C:\Users\krintoul\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WebSiteCache on most IDE operations. I’m not sure why there were that many folders and moreover, wasn’t sure what Visual Studio was doing with them, but after I zipped those folders up and moved them somewhere else, Visual Studio’s performance improved tremendously.
The Windows SysInternals website has a number of other useful utilities for network management, security, system information and more. Check it out. I’m sure you’ll find something of value.

VS2010 doesn't always release dlls before building

I have a periodically occurring problem when building with Visual Studio 2010.
Sometimes it refuses to build with an error message like:
Error 102 Unable to copy file "xxxxx\Debug\Services.dll" to "bin\Debug\Services.dll". The process cannot access the file 'bin\Debug\Services.dll' because it is being used by another process.
The only remedy I have found is to restart Visual Studio. Closing the solution is not enough.
I have tried to find the culprit with Process Explorer since I suspected that one of my own threads didn't close down as it should. However the process is devenv.exe, i.e. Visual Studio itself. Also I get this symptom only with VS 2010 even when building upgraded VS 2008 projects. I never experienced this problem with the same projects under VS 2008.
I have a lot of custom made WPF user controls and I have a theory that it is the WPF designer that sometimes hold on to the control's dependent dll's when it should be releasing them for a build. The theory is not well established since this is a periodic problem and sometimes it occurs without the designed being open. I also have the same problem for a windows forms project. Sometimes I get through a day without a locked dll. Sometimes it is every other build or so.
I have asked Microsoft about the problem and they told me to make a dump of Visual Studio and debug the dump. I didn't find that to be sound advice.
Have anybody experienced something similar? It is really annoying.
Update 1
Since this appears to be a Visual Studio bug and Microsoft has responded that they do not intend to do anything about it I would like to encourage everybody who works with custom user controls to up-vote this bug at connect.microsoft.com.
The bug is both reported here: https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/587281 and by me here https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/568672
Update 2
I have hacked together a simple Visual Studio macro that closes down all .XAML files before building. So far I have not experienced the lockup with this macro.
Add the following macro in Visual Studio and assigned to your favorite build short cut. Maybe / maybe not that will fix the problem.
Imports System
Imports EnvDTE
Imports EnvDTE80
Imports EnvDTE90
Imports EnvDTE90a
Imports EnvDTE100
Imports System.Diagnostics
Public Module CloseXamlAndBuildModule
Sub CloseXamlAndBuild()
For Each myDocument As EnvDTE.Document In DTE.Documents
If myDocument.Name.EndsWith(".xaml") Then
myDocument.Close()
End If
Next
DTE.Solution.SolutionBuild.Build()
End Sub
End Module
I finally found a stable working solution. I realized that the source of the problems were initializing code in the constructors of WCF services and WPF controls. After cleaning the constructors from any dependencies to other assemblies everything has been fine.
Try using VSCommands plugin.
It has option to 'Apply Fix' that will allow you to close any process which keeps the file locked (most often than not it is vshost process which can be killed).
This is a fairly persistent complaint about VS2010 although it is not wide-spread. I haven't seen a good diagnosis for it yet. The feedback item to watch is this one, it seems to be the collector for most duplicates. Getting it resolved quicker probably is going to require opening a case at Microsoft Support.
I actually reported this problem to Microsoft Connect a while ago, but had not checked up on the issue in a while.
My original report to Microsoft is here.
Among the comments is a way to reproduce the issue with custom user controls (as I suspected).
Microsoft just replied with a standard "thank you for your feedback, your suggestion does not meet the criteria to be addressed". Thank you Microsoft. I guess I will just have to live with restarting Visual Studio a couple of times every hour.

Visual Studio 2005 - 'Updating IntelliSense' hang-up

I am having trouble with my Visual Studio 2005 IntelliSense for some time now.
It used to work fine, but for some reason the 'Updating IntelliSense...' does no longer seem to be able to complete for the solution I'm working on currenly- it simply gets stuck somewhere at about 3-bars of progress and blocks one of my precious CPUs for eternity.
Deleting the .ncb file of my solution and performing a full 'Clean' afterwards was no help.
The 'Update' simply gets stuck again.
The project I'm working on is a fairly large C++ solution with 50+ projects, quite a few template classes (even more lately) and in general quite complex. I have no idea which impact this might have on the IntelliSense.
Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 and all hotfixes which rely on it are not
installed (we hade huge problems with this one, so we haven't migrated yet).
Any answer is very much appreciated on this one. Gives me the creeps..
Cheers,
\Bjoern
Rename "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\vcpackages\feacp.dll" to something else (like "feacp.bak") to disable Intellisense.
I recommend getting Visual Assist X to make up for it (it also has a number of other useful features as well).
I have found that the best fix for Intellisense in VS2005 is to install SP1, and then this hotfix: 947315. It has the added benefit of fixing most of the multi-core build issues.
This hotfix also includes the ability to control Intellisense via Macros. More information here.
As for making SP1 more friendly for existing code, you might also check out this hotfix for template compilation: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930198
Intellsense is problematic. Very problematic. When it works, it's great, but more often than not it will cause more problems than it's worth. It will hang up, it will parse through files while you are trying to compile code and will generally make VC 2005 sometimes run like a dog. As a previous poster suggested, disable intellisense (and chose a potential alternative -- I also support VAX).
Supposedly the hotfix and SP1 provided by MS will fix some intellisense problems, but not all. We have seen minimal help from these where I work. You are better off to disable it and rely on something else.
My feeling is that the slowness comes from the size of the projects. Yours seems like it might fall into that case.
Here is the only solution that works for me.

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