Issues Upgraging to Visual Studio 2010 - visual-studio-2010

Just curious how many people are actually running 2010 and what's your feedback so far?
Can I run 2010 concurrently with 2008 without issues?
Also, are 2008 projects 100% compatible with 2010 and if so should I just uninstall 2008?
Thanks for any feedback.

I've moved the whole development group for our project to VS2010 3 days after it came out. Before this I've been trying out the beta versions on my machine with some side projects.
From the experience I got I can say:
VS 2010 can easily run alongside VS
2008 on the same machine without any
issues whatsoever.
The projects
created in VS 2008 can be opened in
VS 2010. But when they are opened -
they will be updated to the new
format, and cannot be reopened in VS 2008. The changes aren't critical, so if it's necessary it is possible to
revert these changes. Possible, bt
not straightforward :)
This means that if you're working on a collaborative project, either the whole team moves to 2010, or you all stay with VS 2008. That doesn't mean you can't write your own projects in VS 2010 in parallel ^_^
UPD: I haven't met any projects that I wasn't able to convert using the conversion wizard. but just in case you can install VS 2010, convert your project, and see if it's all fine. If it is - work on it for a couple of days.. If you're completely satisfied - uninstall VS 2008 and feel good about it :D

Yes you can run 2010 concurrently with 2008. I wouldn't bet that every 2008 project can be opened/converted to a 2010 project otherwise Microsoft would have never spent so much time making the conversion wizard. The conversion wizard also mentions you should back up the files prior to conversion.

Related

Opening Different Visual Studio projects

OK, can't find a solution to this.
A client sent me his Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2012 for Web project. I have Microsoft Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 installed.
I get an error when I try to open his project saying "this project is not compatible with the current version of visual studio".
We'll be passing the project back & forth quite a bit, so I need a solution that meets that need please.
So, I figure I may be able to modify the project with a text editor to let me open it. If so, do I have to re-edit it back when I send it back to him?
Can I install VS Express 2012 for Web on a machine that already has VS Ultimate 2010 on it without any conflicts? Can I open it if I install VS 2012 Ultimate (keeping 2010 as well)?
I have another client that uses 2010, so whatever I do, I need to be able to still support him.
If I can't have 2 versions installed at the same time, and can't easily edit a file to make it compatible, then I guess my last option is a virtual machine.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Microsoft Visual Studio has backwards compatibility since the version 2010 SP1.
So in this case you just need update your Visual Studio 2010 to SP1 and it will understand the new way files are versioned.
Based on my experience:
You do can edit it with a text file and send it back, but it's not compiled yet so it's your partners job.
Maybe, just maybe, you can edit the .sln and .(whatever the project file extension is) file to meet your VS10 env (I think it's going to be a bumpy road though)
Yes, I'm pretty sure you can have VS 10 and VS 12 installed on same machine, note that you have to have .Net 4.0 and .Net 4.5

Can I use Visual Studio 2010 without breaking my 2008 apps?

Now Visual Studio 2010 is out can I use Visual Studio 2010 without breaking my 2008 apps? Can I still compile to .Net 2.0 etc?
Thanks
Steven
Yes, you can still target framework 2.0 in VS2010. And you can also run VS2008 alongside VS2010.
Basically, yes, but there are a few things that get changed, for instance:
Testing projects always get converted to .NET 4.0
Project files get stored in "VS 2010" format.
So downgrading back to VS 2008 is not directly possible (in 99% of all cases it's still not a problem by hand-editing the files, takes just a few seconds).
However, usually, this is not an issue though. Your deployment capabilities are not limited by that. You can still target any framework.
Additionally, I found that running VS 2008 alongside 2010 made no problems at all. Including 2008 projects in a 2010 solution works fine and does not change the project file. It's very easy to slowly transmit to the new version step-by-step.

Running Visual Studio 2005, 2008, and 2010 on same system

I have around 50 projects in Visual Studio 2005 that I am building a new development machine for and I'd like to slowly move those projects to VS 2008 but also have 2010 available for select new projects.
Can this work? Are there any gotchas for this sort of setup? Any general advice for running multiple versions of Visual Studio on the same system would be greatly appreciated. Specifically related to managing a controlled migration of projects to new versions but being able to selectively keep some on old versions.
I've got 7.1, 8, and 9 installed at the same time (well, and VB part of 6 as well) and I've not really had a problem opening projects file in the wrong version. The Visual Studio Solution files is "associated" with a particular version even if they all have the same extension of .sln, as you can see from its little icon. Microsoft Visual Studio Version Selector seems to handle individual project files (.vcproj) fine as well.
The only thing I've had is the individual source code files not opening up in the latest version like I want, but that's easily fixed with the click of a little button in VS Opions.
Microsoft have this to say:
Visual Studio supports the installation of Visual Studio .NET 2002, 2003, ... on the same computer.
In general, you should install the earliest release of Visual Studio first, and then install subsequent versions of Visual Studio in the order in which they were released.
Make sure when you open up the 2005 files you're doing it in 2005. To open them in another would require a conversion which would render them incompatible with the older compiler set-up. To aid this, structure whatever workspace you're using into 2005, 2008, and 2010 so as to minimize accidental chance of this.
Second, when you double click to open the projects, it will invariably attempt to open them with 2010. You'll have to start with VS#### instead of the solution/project unless you're in the 2010 workspace.
I have VC6, VB6, VS 2008, and VS2010 RC installed on Windows Vista. I cannot double click on the VC6 dsp files without VS2010 opening and asking to perform the conversion. The 2008 C# projects open in 2008 as long as I use the solution file. The 2008 project file opens in 2010 instead of 2008 even though the version selector is the default program. Most of the time I try to remember to open the desired version of Visual Studio and then open the project.
You can mitigate some of these issues by changing the default program associations in the control panel or the registry.
Update: This setup works on Windows 7 x64, with the addition of VS2013.
Yes it can work. I'm not sure if you have to install them in a particular order... but install them in order of the versions... 2005, 2008, 2010. Should be good to go.
I can't speak for 2010, but I have run 2005 and 2008 at the same time on my system without any fuss.
And I made the double-click mistake that wheaties warns about more than once :(
I have VS2005 & VS2008 running without any issues. I have had problems when working with betas, express editions & am assuming you don't have them.
I would say refrain from making too many changes to the setup of these editions, it should be fine.
I also had the same doubt. I work at my company which is still on VS 2008 and I want to personally use the VS 2010 and not risk the 2008. I installed the 2010 and it worked fine with the 2008. Just make sure you note the projects that are in 2005 and open them with the same accordingly.
The reason why it works is simple: if you open your solution file in Notepad, you'll see which version of VS is related to your project.

Does Visual Studio 2010 RC play nice with Visual Studio 2008?

Does Visual Studio 2010 RC play nicely with Visual Studio 2008?
I am wondering if I need to setup a Virtual Machine to play with VS 2010 or if I can just install it on my Dev machine.
If it messes up VS 2010 then that is sad but ok. If it messed up VS 2008 then I would be in trouble.
Has anyone tried this out? Does it work well? Poorly?
Thanks for any answers.
I've had no problems. Microsoft has designed the last several versions of Visual Studio to be able to co-exist side-by-side.
That said, VS 2010 is an RC, so it is still a pre-release. And even after it goes RTM, it's still a complex product and like any complex software install there can be bugs. I wouldn't expect serious problems, but there's always the fraction of a percent that do run into issues. So I'd still plan to install it on a day when you'd have cycles to deal with potential issues (if nothing else, installing it on my machine that hadn't had OS updates installed in a while required at least 2 reboots).
Yes this works and is a supported scenario. My advice is to install 2008 first then 2010. This is the setup i have on multiple computers.
has worked for me without any issues so far. I would follow JaredPar's advice though, install 2008 first, then 2010.
I never trust the "plays nice with others" claims because I've been bit by it before. They supposedly co-exist, but I still put it in a VM.
See this blog post.
Visual Studio 2010 / .NET Framework 4 RC Ready for General Download
I haven't installed it on my machine but my manager has and after we looked at it we decided it's best not to go there yet for two reasons:
1) We have to go through the whole conversion process again, which after our experience with 1.1 -> 2.0 wasn't very enticing.
2) We caused an error within the first couple minutes of playing around that worked fine on VS2008 leading us to believe it's not quite ready for primetime yet anyways. (It was adding a method in the class diagram that caused VS to crash for some reason).
Just my two cents though.
edit: I just found another great example, fifth one down: http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Tell-a-programmer.aspx
I've had no problems either. And I didn't with VS2010 beta 2 and VS2008 either.
I have both of them on my machine, so far no problems
I havent go into too much testing with my VS 2008 projects in 2010, but it does look like it works fine with VS 2010 RC.
Also, both versions seem to run fine on my machine. (I have also VS 2003 on my local as well)
Bearing in mind its the Release Candidate version, is should be very reliable in this area.
I've run into an error with IIS and VS2010 -- it's solved by re-running the .NET 3.5 version of aspnet_regiis.
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vsprereleaseannouncements/thread/44dfcf76-bede-4f96-a556-b219a18b6116
I installed 2010 with 2008 already installed. I had tons of hangs, crashes and general malfunctions. Reinstalling 2008 didn't help until I removed every trace of 2010 from registry.
I've installed 2010 with 2008 on this machine for silverlight development.. I haven't noticed any problems except for file associations all goto the 2010 version rather than what I'd prefer opened in 2008 by default. (2010 to me is much slower than 2008)

Are there reasons to use Visual Studio 2005 when 2008 is available?

What reasons are there for continuing to run Visual Studio 2005 when 2008 is available?
I work on a project where the environment is dictated to be Visual Studio 2005. Are there good technical reasons for this? Can I use Visual Studio 2008 and build an app that is 100% indistinguishable from the same app build with Visual Studio 2005?
I think there are two questions here
Can I use VS2008 to create apps compatible with VS2005
Generally speaking the answer is yes. I do this frequently with several internal and external hobby projects with great success. You may encounter an odd ball tooling issue but so far none has cropped up for me.
Is there any reason not to use VS2008 over VS2005
The best reason I can think of is a large developer environment. Once you make the switch to using VS2008, it will upgrade all of the projects in your solution to the new format. This will no longer be usable for anyone using VS2005. They will be forced to upgrade or maintain parrallel versions of the project file. In general, I find it's best to upgrade in groups rather than individuals.
We are currently migrating from 2005 to 2008. If you open and save a project while in VS2008, you will not be able to open that solution/project in VS2005 (at least we couldn't find a way easily). If the rest of your team is still in 2005, you should stay there. You CAN, however set up a project in 2008 and keep it compatible with 2005... as long as everyone opening it is using 2008. You keep the .NET version at 2.5, and don't convert most of the stuff that it wants you to convert.
The only time you CAN'T migrate to 2008 is if you are using a report project and SQL Server 2005. VS2008 will only let you integrate a report project with SQL Server 2008. What did we do?
We migrated to 2008 and all the Team Server stuff, except for the database and reporting. Those we kept on 2005, and so I end up having to open both versions on a daily basis... but that's why they pay me the (somewhat??) big bucks!
Not really, the new version of Visual Studio has the compilers for the new language versions and all the libraries for .NET 3.5. Since they all target the 2.0 CLR and Visual Studio 2008 allows you to target previous versions of the framework I don't see any reason to stick with 2005.
The obvious answer is: No license for Visual Studio 2008.
My company is "saving money" but not upgrading...
One reason might be interaction with existing products.
I write code for AutoCAD in C#.
They (Autodesk) "officially" support VS 2005 but I've been using 2008 since...well 2008.

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