Installing VS 2005 SP1 on Vista (and how to uninstall the VS 2005 SP1 Beta on Vista)

Yesterday I blogged about VS 2005 Service Pack 1 (SP1) being released.

If you have previously installed the VS 2005 SP1 Beta, then you need to uninstall it before installing the final SP1 release.  With Windows XP you can do this by going to your Add/Remove Programs list in the control panel, where both Visual Studio and the SP1 Beta Patch will show up in the list.

Several people over the last day have asked me about how this works on Windows Vista - since a quick glance at your Add/Remove programs won't show up the SP1 Beta Patch.  The reason for this is because Vista separates "updates"/"patches" separately from installed programs.  You need to click the "View installed updates" link on the top left of the programs and features control panel to see these:

Once clicked it will list all patches/updates on your system:

You can then select the SP1 Beta patch and uninstall it. 

In addition to the VS 2005 SP1 download, yesterday we released a beta for a download that fixes Vista specific issues with VS 2005 (we are waiting a few more weeks to get user feedback on using VS 2005 on Vista to find any remaining issues before we declare this second Vista update done - but you'll be able to install this VS 2005 for Vista beta patch now to get immediate fixes). 

Jan 1st 2006 Update: You can download the additional Vista SP1 Beta Patch here.  Mike has a detailed post on debugging ASP.NET using VS 2005 on Vista with IIS7 that you should read as well.

Hope this helps,

Scott

45 Comments

  • Hi Scott,

    Wanted to know if i have to uninstall other items on visual and reinstall it back again after installing the service pack. My other itesm include RC release for ajax and microsfot extensions for workflow and WCF.

    Thanks

  • Hi Scott,

    Wonder why its asking me for the cd for visual studio 2005 to uninstall the service pack. Too bad i dont have a cd and my burner is not working. In Xp i mounted the iso image using microsoft free tool to mount iso images and installed the 2005 but that tool no longer works in windows vista.


  • Hi Zeeshan,

    You shouldn't need to uninstall any of the extension or add-in products. The only reason you need to uninstall the VS 2005 Web Application Project add-in is because it is not built-in with SP1.

    Hope this helps,

    Scott

  • Scott,

    How is this all going to work with our Vista upgrades from XP to vista? Is VS 2005 with/withou t SP1 still going to work once we've upgraded? What I mean is, If we had XP with the XP Sp1, would we need to install the Vista SP1 after upgrading the OS?

    Thanks
    -DF

  • Well, I have not enough space on C:\, I assume it's using `Dokumente und Einstellungen` on C:\ to unpack itself. Is it possible to change that? I just got Windows on C:\, nothing else, that's why it's a small partition.

    Thanks and best regards,
    Andreas

  • The Vista download link now reads:
    Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Update for Windows Vista Beta - COMING SOON

    Any word on when soon is?

  • Hi Steve,

    Can you send me an email that describes your install problems? I'll then loop some people in from the setup team to help get it fixed.

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • The SP1 will not run on vista, thus if you - like me - have Web Application Projects, you're just out of luck and can't work.

    Any chance on getting that beta download up and running or instructions on how to work using Vista, VS2005 and Web Apps? It's a little frustrating being unable to work right now.

    A warning on installing SP1 if you're using Web Application projects and Vista would have been helpful ;-)

  • HI Hartvig,

    I'm not sure I understand what you mean by saying that SP1 doesn't work on Vista. It should work fine on Vista (that is what I am running now). It also fully supports web application projects.

    Can you clarrify what you are running into?

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • Wow - lightning fast reply! I'm impressed!

    When I start VS2005 on Vista I get a dialog saying "Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Requires an update for Windows Vista". As I can't download it atm, I just click Continue but when opening a solution containing a Web Application Project, a warning message pops saying
    "This project file .... cannot be opened. The project type is not supported by this installation."

    I'm imagining that this is fixed as soon as I install the Vista update for VS2005 Sp1, but as you know the download link is saying "coming soon".

    And again - thanks a million for you fast response. I have no clue how you manage this :-)

  • Hi Hartvig,

    The update for Vista shouldn't be needed to enable web application projects. Instead, it just provides additional fixes for Vista related issues (these occur even without SP1 installed).

    Can you send me an email about the issues you are seeing more, and I can then have someone on my team investigate them with you to try and figure out what is going wrong.

    As part of your email, can you also try doing File->New Project and check to see whether the Web Application Project icon shows up under the "web" node?

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • Hi Scott!

    I've sent you an e-mail with info and screenshots. Thanks for taking the time to do this - I really appreciate it and bow in respect for this fabulous support.

    Cheers,
    Niels...

  • Hi Goofer,

    Have you tried selecting the View->Toolbox menu item in Visual Studio? This should bring back the toolbox.

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • Scott,

    I'm working on Vista, and the link for the Beta Vista patch to go along with SP1 on the download page is still not active, (and I keep getting that annoying "Warning you need to install...").

    I believe power has been back up for a while, any word on when the beta might be available for Vista Users?

    Thanks for any assistance

    Matthew

  • Hi Matthew,

    The last I heard was that it should go live later today I think - or early tomorrow.

    The power here is still pretty sketchy, and we just got back electricity to our build-labs early yesterday. About 30% of Microsoft employees are also still without power in their homes (and the power company is saying it will take another week for some folks to get it back). As you might expect, this is causing a lot of communication delays (it is also 40 degrees here during the day - so a lot of people are scrambling to keep their families warm).

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • Hi Scott,

    Just trying to rationalise the SP1 updates on my Vista machine. When trying to uninstall one of the SP1 updates (I had two listed - probably the Beta and the new one), One uninstalled OK, but the second asks for the disk "Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Premier Partner Edition ENU", but I originally installed from the MSDN VS2005 Professional disk - so I cannot unintsall one of the patches (KB918525)! Whoops

    I will install KB929470 and KB926601 and see what happens

  • I am stuck in the same situation as sbyard. I get prompted for a disk but every one I try is rejected.

  • Hi Ken and SByard,

    Heath has a good utility that you can run here: http://blogs.msdn.com/heaths/articles/pab.aspx
    It helps identify which products you have installed and which patches have been added to them.

    If you are still having issues can you send me mail? I can then loop you in with Heath to help.

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • Hi Scott,

    One of our developers has installed SP1 on XP2, Team Edition for Software Developers. He had previously applied the KB917452 and KB915364 patches, as well as the web application project add-on.

    He uninstalled the web application project part before beginning the installation, but when the install completed, he could no longer open web projects - instead he's getting a "the project type is not supported by this installation" message when he tries to open web projects, and the option to create a web project is no longer available in the "New Project" dialogue.

    Is this because he didn't uninstall the two other updates prior to starting the upgrade?

    Any advice you can offer greatly appreciated!

  • Scott,

    I believe that I'm having the same issue that Hartvig was having. I had the web application hotfix installed for VS2005. Now, after I uninstalled it and installed SP1, any web application project files that I had created using the hotfix will not open using VS2005 with SP1. I am getting the same "The project type is not supported by this installation" error. Any ideas on how to fix this without reverting back to the hotfix and removing SP1?

  • Hi Charles,

    I suspect that what has happened is that SP1 didn't install on your system - which is why you are seeing the project type isn't known error.

    Can you check to see if SP1 is installed using the notes I have in this blog post: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/01/01/a-few-vs-2005-sp1-links-and-information-nuggets.aspx

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • Hi Giles,

    I suspect that what has happened is that SP1 didn't install on your system - which is why you are seeing the project type isn't known error.

    Can you check to see if SP1 is installed using the notes I have in this blog post: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/01/01/a-few-vs-2005-sp1-links-and-information-nuggets.aspx

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • Well, it said it was installed, but when I looked, the web application project support had disappeared.  I reinstalled, and now it's working.  Really weird, because the first time I installed, it said that it had installed successfully.

  • I have a clean Vista install + .NET 2005 Professional. I have updated the VS.NET 2005 SP1 successfully, however I am unable to install the Vista SP1 Beta. I keep getting this error:

    "The upgrade patch cannot be installed by the Windows Installer service because the program to be upgraded may be missing, or the upgrade patch may update a different version of the program. Verify that the program to be upgraded exists on your computer and that you have the correct upgrade patch"

    Any ideas? It seems there are a few people having this trouble.

    Regards,
    Shane

  • Hi Shane,

    Can you send me an email about this issue? I'll then loop you in with some folks from the VS Setup team who can hopefully help.

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • I installed SP1 (after uninstalling Web Application Project Add-In). I checked the about and add/remove programs, both indicate that VS2005 SP1 was installed (Premier Partner Edition ENU in about, Team Explorer ENU in add/remove programs).
    I cannot create new web application projects (templates not visible in New Project). I haven't tried opening an existing ione, but suspect that will not work either.
    I have installed SP1 3 times now and no help.
    Don't know if it makes a difference, but I also installed .NET 3.0 and associated WF, WCF, WPF extensions before installing SP1.
    Any chance you know why WAP projects are no longer available and/or some way to correct this. VS2005 and extensions, version compatibilities, etc is starting to feel like DLL hell all over again.

  • Hi Derek,

    Can you send me an email with more details about your configuration? I can then loop in folks from my team to help investigate it with you.

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • I got a error when installing VS80-KB915364-X86-ENU.exe ends with the following error:

    The upgrade patch cannot be installed by the Windows Installer service because the
    program to be upgraded bay be missing, or the upgrade patch may update a different
    version of the program. Verify that the program to be upgraded exists on your
    computer and that you have the correct upgrade patch.


    searching hours online find a few people having the same problem but no solution to it, any ideas about how to solve this? Thanks very much!!!

  • Hi Ray,

    Can you send me an email with more details about this? I can the loop you in with a few people to help.

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • I have tried repeatedly to install VS 2005 SP1 on Vista. Runs for hours without completion. Must I wait overnight or for days? What gives?

  • Hi Harlan,

    If you are still having problems with this, can you send me email? I can then loop you in with someone who can help.

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • Hi Scott,

    I've tried a few other things, and am still feeling quite stranded by Microsoft. I normally enjoy their products, ESPECIALLY Visual Studio, but it's hard to enjoy a product that requires an update that seems to either hang or fails to upgrade. For example, I've tried starting with a base version of Windows XP SP2 having only Office 2003 and VS 2005 (with SP1). That attempt failed. Another attempt last night was the same as that except that Office 2003 was not installed. That failed part way into the Vista upgrade as well. This is the most unpleasant upgrade I've ever experienced with any software product. Neither I nor my company needs this kind of problem.

  • Hi Harlan,

    I'm sorry you are running into issues. Can you send me an email (scottgu@microsoft.com) with more details about the errors? I will then loop someone in to help you get them fixed.

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • Scott,
    I finally figured out what would work for me. I did the following. 1) Clean build of Vista Ultimate. 2) Did the 8-10 updates needed by Vista. 3) Installed Visual Studio 2005. 4) Installed VS 2005 SP1.

    The installation of the SP completed in about 30 minutes. I guess the simplicity of the installation was what I needed. Apparently with nothing else loaded but Visual Studio the upgrade was a snap. In any case, it worked.

  • Hi Scott,
    I've got the same issue as Shane. I have clean Vista install and am trying to install the SP1 Beta for Windows on VS 2005 Professional Edition. The message I get is:
    "The upgrade patch cannot be installed by the Windows Installer service because the program to be upgraded may be missing or the upgrade patch may update a different version of the program. Verify that the program to be upgraded exists on your computer and that you have the correct upgrade patch."
    Thanks,
    S.

  • Hi Saurabh,

    Can you send me an email with more details about this error? I can then help loop you in with someone who can help.

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • Hi Scott,
    Found the issues...quite silly. I didn't realise I had that VS 2005 SP1 Beta for Vista had to be installed on top VS 2005 SP1.
    Thanks,
    Saurabh

  • Hi Georgi,

    I'm sorry to hear you are having problems. :-(

    Can you send me an email (scottgu@microsoft.com) with details of the issues you are running into? I can then loop someone in from the setup team to help get them resolved.

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • i cant install vs.net 2005 on windows vista it stop setup and give error that it cant install the component anybody can help

  • Hi Firas,

    Can you send me an email (scottgu@microsoft.com) with details of the issues you are running into? I can then loop someone in from the setup team to help get them resolved.

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • I'm also seeing "patch cannot be installed... the program to be upgraded may be missing..."

    I have only installed VS 2005 -- with and without the Security Patch. I even ran the repair tool.

  • Hi Dustin,

    Can you send me an email (scottgu@microsoft.com) with details of the issues you are running into? I can then loop someone in from the setup team to help get them resolved.

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • Can someone please confirm for me that you must install VS2005 SP1 on vista and then VS2005 SP1 for vista? This is not clear to me and when I just try the vista service pack I get the error mentioned above:
    "patch cannot be installed... the program to be upgraded may be missing..."

    Thanks in advance!

  • Hi Gulf,

    Yes - you'll want to install VS 2005 SP1 first, and then install the VS 2005 SP1 update for Vista after that.

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • Hi Rajendra,

    Can you send me email (scottgu@microsoft.com) with more details about this error? I can then loop someone in to help you.

    Thanks,

    Scott

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