Steps to Uninstall VS 2008 Beta2 before installing the VS 2008 Final Release

62 Comments

• I just noticed that the Entity Framework installer quits with an error demanding .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 2. Any trick to work around this and make the current drop of the Entity Framework work with VS 2008 RTM?
  

• Thx for the list, that will be really help full to alot of people.
  

• I found that on some machine I had to uninstall .NET 2.0 and 3.0 Framework SP1 so as to make .NET 3.5 RTM installation successful.
  
  This unexpected experience makes sure that I would never install Beta bits outside a VM.
  

• Why does Studio install all this stuff that we'd never use? or worse, have absolutely zero interest in using it? I don't understand......
  
  It's like the older stuff ALWAYS installing J# runtime stuff no matter what....
  

• Scott,
  After doing all the steps above, I also ran the .net 3.5 cleanup tool provided by Aaron Stebner.
  
  http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2007/08/31/4678599.aspx
  
  raj
  

• How to add ASP.NET AJAX project template into VS.NET 2008? (under .NET 2.0)
  

• Thanks for posting this. This will surely help many people
  

• Hi Scott,
  
  Can a *2005* version of TFS be compatible and work with VS2008 Client(s).
  Cheers, John
  

• Hi Ralf,
  
  >>>>>>> I just noticed that the Entity Framework installer quits with an error demanding .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 2. Any trick to work around this and make the current drop of the Entity Framework work with VS 2008 RTM?
  
  The current build of the entity framework doesn't run on the final VS 2008 and .NET 3.5 release. The ADO.NET team will be releasing an updated version that does soon though.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Stephen,
  
  >>>>>> Why does Studio install all this stuff that we'd never use? or worse, have absolutely zero interest in using it? I don't understand......
  
  Unfortunately when you install VS 2008 by default it leaves a lot of options checked. If you uncheck these most of the items above are not installed - but the defaults do end up installing a lot of functionality.
  
  Sorry!
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Vincent,
  
  >>>>>>>> How to add ASP.NET AJAX project template into VS.NET 2008? (under .NET 2.0)
  
  If you already have VS 2005 and ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 then I believe the ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 controls will show up on the VS 2008 toolbox when you are working with 2.0 projects.
  
  We'll be shipping a VS 2008 project download on the web that then provides a 2.0 with AJAX 1.0 project item that you can use to create new projects that target this.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Rob,
  
  >>>>>>> Everytime I try to install the RTM version after uninstalling the beta 2 version I get this error. I even tried to follow your steps above and uninstall everything by hand.
  
  Sorry you are running into this. Can you send me an email (scottgu@microsoft.com) and I'll loop you in from someone on the setup team who can help? Also - can you try running Aaron's cleanup tool here to see if this helps: http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2007/08/31/4678599.aspx
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Scott
  
  Today, I watch the Linq movie on the asp.net website, I see you use Linq to SQL debugger Visualizer to debug the Linq sentence, but when I am trying to play the same example, I can only see the string stored in the variable, but I can't see that magnifier icon next to the variable. Can you tell me is it still available in the VS.NET 2008 RTM version or not?
  

• One of the key components missing from that list is Visual Studio 2008beta 2 itself. One of the devs here managed to break his machine by uninstalling from that list, including the framework, and then trying to remove vs2008. It wasn't happy...
  

• You also have to remove all the previous Visual Studio Express 2008 versions running on your machine before installing Visual Studio 2008 RTM.
  

• Hi JavaFun,
  
  >>>>>>> Today, I watch the Linq movie on the asp.net website, I see you use Linq to SQL debugger Visualizer to debug the Linq sentence, but when I am trying to play the same example, I can only see the string stored in the variable, but I can't see that magnifier icon next to the variable. Can you tell me is it still available in the VS.NET 2008 RTM version or not?
  
  The LINQ to SQL debug visualizer is a separate download. I believe you can grab a version here: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/07/31/linq-to-sql-debug-visualizer.aspx I think it is being updated for RTM - but that the copy I linked to will still work with RTM.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Scott,
  
  I uninstalled Beta 2 and installed RTM yesterday and it all worked perfectly. Note that I found the easiest way was in Add Remove Programs (Programs and Features on Vista) is just to sort by installed date, and then you can see everything that was installed with Beta 2 and pick them off in the reverse order. It worked well for me ;-)
  
  Congrats to your team and thanks for a great product.
  

• Scott,
  
  Microsoft work very hard to create a first class development environment, but they do fall from grace when it comes to UI installation issues.
  
  If certain components need to be removed or updated prior to install, then that IS a job for the installation process.
  
  Just because we are talking about removing beta components this is no excuse. Remember they are microsoft beta components and what's more these components are directly related to the product being installed.
  
  So let us have no more half-assed excuses, and no more half-assed installation processes.
  
  Keep the product professional.
  

• Hi Scott,
  
  >>>>>>>> We'll be shipping a VS 2008 project download on the web that then provides a 2.0 with AJAX 1.0 project item that you can use to create new projects that target this.
  
  When do you expect to ship this? I really need to create a AJAX enabled app quite soon, but I need to target the .NET Framework 2.0. Is there a workaround at the moment? I don't have any previous version of VS installed, since I've just moved to Vista!
  
  Cheers,
  
  Richard
  

• I have been having a lot of trouble getting a good image of the Team Suite Trial from the download site. The first one would get to the point of copying DLLs, but it would always fail around number 66 or so... I tried burning it with different programs, on different operating systems, and at different speeds to determine if that was an error. Then I tried to load the iso to a virtual pc image, and I had the same issue. I tried to download it again, and it cut off at under 2 GB. Is there any other way to get this file that would be more reliable?
  

• Will this uninstall operation also help with the Express versions as well?
  

• How I got VS2008 and .NET 3.5 Framework installed on Vista after having zero trouble with VS2008 Beta2 (in Haiku):
  Copy DVD to disk
  Purge AppCompat Keys
  Virtual Machine next time!
  
  I had uninstalled VS2008 Beta2 and all the bits casually at first, but with extreme prejudice by the time it was over. I used msiinv, SmartMSIZap, and any other uninstall helpers I could find. Still wasn't working though. And I'd get such awesome errors in my log, like:
  
  [11/21/07,02:04:10] Microsoft .NET Framework v3.5: e:\setup\..\wcu\dotnetframework\dotnetfx35setup.exe exited with return value 5100
  [11/21/07,02:04:10] InstallReturnValue: GFN_MID NET Framework v3.5, 0x13ec
  [11/21/07,02:04:10] Setup.exe: AddGlobalCustomProperty
  [11/21/07,02:04:10] Microsoft .NET Framework v3.5: ***ERRORLOG EVENT*** : Error code 5100 for this component means "Asia"
  [11/21/07,02:04:10] Setup.exe: AddGlobalCustomProperty
  [11/21/07,02:04:10] Microsoft .NET Framework v3.5: ***ERRORLOG EVENT*** : Component Microsoft .NET Framework v3.5 returned an unexpected value.
  [11/21/07,02:04:10] Setup.exe: AddGlobalCustomProperty
  [11/21/07,02:04:10] Microsoft .NET Framework v3.5: ***ERRORLOG EVENT*** : Return from system messaging: Asia
  
  I purged System Restore Points, scrubbed registry entries by hand, and deleted anything I could find that might have been associated with VS2008 Beta. What finally worked was when I found AppCompatability entries in the registry for some setup related files located in my temp folder with values WINXPSP2. doh. Since it was around 4AM I didn't feel like being methodically scientific and changing one thing at a time to determine exactly what fixed it-- I purged those entries AND copied all the contents of the DVD I had burned back to my hard drive. Install ran to completion.
  
  HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers
  HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers
  
  Hopefully this might help somebody else.
  

• Hi John,
  
  >>>>>>> Can a *2005* version of TFS be compatible and work with VS2008 Client(s).
  
  Yes - they are compatible both ways (VS 2005 accessing TFS 2008 and VS 2008 accessing TFS 2005). Brian has a good post here on it: http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2007/08/08/final-tfs-2008-feature-list.aspx
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Scott, please tell me this is some kind of cruel joke. The Akamai Download Manager has failed for the 4th time. This time it made it all the way to 99%. Please, for the sake of Thanksgiving, have them put this download in the standard Subscriber downloads section and use the Microsoft Download Manager (which I have never had problems with).
  

• Scott,
  
  I followed the directions for uninstalling the beta version but when I install 2008 I get the following message.
  
  You must uninstall all pre-releae products before you can continue with setup.
  
  
  These pre-release products might include but not limited to , the following :
  
  -Microsoft Windows Vista Client Headers and Libraries (6001.16533.121)
  -Microsoft Windows SDK Intellisense and Reference Assemblies (6001.16533.121)
  -Microsoft Windows Vista Client Utilities for Win32 Development (6001.16533.121)...
  
  Any clues how I can remove these......
  
  Dennis
  

• I did not install any beta 2008 (nor have any other beta software), yet the RTM setup fails, soon after the actions HideCSharpSharedDir_x86_enu and RollbackTempHxDs
  
  Any idea on how to resolve this would be highly appreciated. I am using Vista ultimate.
  
  Thanks
  Ananth
  

• Where do we report problems where a web site using the 2.0 framework breaks after installing the 3.5 framework (beta 3.5 was fine)? I can send code that works when 3.5 is not installed, and fails to work after 3.5 is installed.
  

• It would be nice to have steps like this for those who would like to remove VS.net 2005 and components.
  

• Hi Scott,
  
  It seems like in the newly released Visual Studio 2008 changed in Options/Environment/Fonts and Colors are not working :(.
  I have a favourite color scheme from a logn time ago, and I apply it every time I install the new version of Visual Studio, but had no luck this time :(.
  
  If you want to check it out just change the Keyword color to Navy and make it bold, click on ok button and you'll find the old Keyword color (blue, not bold) is kept.
  If you open the settings again the color selection is kept to the last selected (navy, bold). The problem is that changes there are not applied.
  
  I'm using Vusial Studio Team System 2008 - 90 days trial edition.
  
  However I had reported this a bug.
  
  Regards,
  Velio Ivanov
  

• After installing the 2008 RTM without error, anything I do with the program "New->Project", open a current project etc, hell i can't even exit VS 2008 without getting unexpected error dialogs. It's 100% unusable! According to the forums I'm not the only one!
  

• Hi Richard,
  
  >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> We'll be shipping a VS 2008 project download on the web that then provides a 2.0 with AJAX 1.0 project item that you can use to create new projects that target this.
  
  >>>>>>>> When do you expect to ship this? I really need to create a AJAX enabled app quite soon, but I need to target the .NET Framework 2.0. Is there a workaround at the moment? I don't have any previous version of VS installed, since I've just moved to Vista!
  
  Unfortunately I don't have an exact ETA just yet. What you can do in the meantime is just copy a web.config file that is ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 enabled to your .NET 2.0 application (and optionally add a reference to the System.Web.Extensions.dll 1.0 assembly if you are using a web application project). This will enable you to use ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 fine within VS 2008.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Dennis,
  
  >>>>>>> -Microsoft Windows Vista Client Headers and Libraries (6001.16533.121)
  
  >>>>>>> -Microsoft Windows SDK Intellisense and Reference Assemblies (6001.16533.121)
  
  >>>>>>> -Microsoft Windows Vista Client Utilities for Win32 Development (6001.16533.121)...
  
  Are you not seeing these in your add/remove programs? If not, can you send me email (scottgu@microsoft.com) and I'll loop you in with someone on the setup team who can help.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Ananth,
  
  >>>>>>> I did not install any beta 2008 (nor have any other beta software), yet the RTM setup fails, soon after the actions HideCSharpSharedDir_x86_enu and RollbackTempHxDs
  
  Sorry about that - it sounds like a setup failure. If you can send me an email with details (scottgu@microsoft.com) I can loop you in with someone from the setup team to help.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Phil,
  
  >>>>>>> Where do we report problems where a web site using the 2.0 framework breaks after installing the 3.5 framework (beta 3.5 was fine)? I can send code that works when 3.5 is not installed, and fails to work after 3.5 is installed.
  
  Please do send me an email with details on this (scottgu@microsoft.com). We aren't aware of any compat issues, and so would definitely like to understand what you are running into more.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Scott
  
  When I load my .net 2.0 web app project into vs.net 2008, i found the reportviewer control version has been updated, I just want to confirm does the new reportviewer control can be running under .net 2.0 framework? If not, how to add the older reportviewer control ?
  

• Hi Bret,
  
  >>>>>>> After installing the 2008 RTM without error, anything I do with the program "New->Project", open a current project etc, hell i can't even exit VS 2008 without getting unexpected error dialogs. It's 100% unusable! According to the forums I'm not the only one!
  
  Sorry about that - it sounds like a setup failure. If you can send me an email with details (scottgu@microsoft.com) I can loop you in with someone from the setup team to help.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Scott,
  
  For some reason, when I upgraded from Beta 2 to RTM (uninstalled everything to do with the Beta), .NET 2.0 SP1 didn't get installed (or 3.0 SP1).
  
  So now I'm getting stacks of different errors from Visual Studio because it's trying to access things like the Visible property of System.Design.Web.UI.ViewRendering or something. Clearly, because it's trying to work with the old 2.0 framework.
  
  I'm using Vista Ultimate x64. I tried downloading the 2.0 SP1 framework separately but, naturally, it's not supported seperately for Vista.
  
  So I'm stuck. I've uninstalled and reinstalled everything but still 2.0 SP1 won't get installed.
  
  What should I do?
  

• Hi. After installing, I cant open a new project->c#->silverlight->silverlight project. I get
  "Package Load Failure
  
  Package 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.Silverlight.SLPackage, Microsoft.VisualStudio.Silverlight, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03...' has failed to load properly......."
  
  any fix to this?
  

• After upgrading a Test Project to VS 2008, all my Ajax controls now fail with the error:
  
  "The control with ID 'myMycontrolId requires a ScriptManager on the page. The ScriptManager must appear before any controls that need it. "
  
  However, when I run same applications on VS 2005, which I still have installed, they work just fine.
  
  After the conversion I noticed that VS 2008 updated my handlers to look like this:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  So I guess there is a bug somewhere that needs resolving.
  
  cheers,
  
  

• So I go to your blogs home page and I read "65 Steps to Uninstall VS 2008 Beta2 before..." and for a second I'm thinking "65 steps!?", and it seems to grow really fast :-)
  

• I download VWD 2008 and install, as visus reason,I re-install OS, so I re-download VWD2008, as its default is c:\SIT22848.tmp\setup.exe /web /createdtemp /noremove could you tell me how to download separatelly
  

• Hi Scott!
  I am trying to reinstall the beta 2 release after uninstalling the rtm due to the silverlight. I am getting the error HRESULT -2147023293 during the framework 3.5 install. Some clue?
  this may help.
  
  [11/25/07,08:54:44] Microsoft .NET Framework v3.5: [2] Component Microsoft .NET Framework v3.5 returned an unexpected value.
  [11/25/07,08:54:44] Microsoft .NET Framework v3.5: [2] Return from system messaging: Incorrect function.
  
  thx in advance.
  

• Well I don't know if this is the right post for this comment, but...there was "we rock" and then wefly247 tracks with VS 2005 that was loaded with goodies, what is shipping with VS 2008?
  

• Hi, Scott,
  I have problem running VS2008 installer on windows XP SP2 virtual machine. I made a DVD copy of VS2008 and ran the setup.exe from DVD, and I got an exception and setup process asked me if I want to start my VS2005 to debug it.
  The installation runs fine on my Vista native machine.
  Do you have any idea of what causes is? Is it VM specific or XP specific?
  Thanks
  Ying
  

• Hi Bret,
  
  >>>>>>>> After installing the 2008 RTM without error, anything I do with the program "New->Project", open a current project etc, hell i can't even exit VS 2008 without getting unexpected error dialogs. It's 100% unusable! According to the forums I'm not the only one!
  
  Do you have VisualSLN installed? If so, you need to update it to the latest version. There is an incompatibility with older versions and VS 2008.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Jay,
  
  >>>>>>> It's important to know that Silverlight does not work with RTM at this point. The Silverlight folks posted a wimpy statement hidden in the blogs that they will have a upgrade "in a couple of weeks" on Nov 19th. silverlight.net/.../6850.aspx
  
  We released the Silverlight Tools AddOn for the final release of VS 2008 earlier today: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/11/26/silverlight-1-1-tools-alpha-for-visual-studio-2008-available-for-download.aspx
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Ying,
  
  >>>>>>>> I have problem running VS2008 installer on windows XP SP2 virtual machine. I made a DVD copy of VS2008 and ran the setup.exe from DVD, and I got an exception and setup process asked me if I want to start my VS2005 to debug it.
  
  If you want to send me email (scottgu@microsoft.com) I can loop you in with someone from the setup team who can help.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Deraldo,
  
  >>>>>> I am trying to reinstall the beta 2 release after uninstalling the rtm due to the silverlight. I am getting the error HRESULT -2147023293 during the framework 3.5 install. Some clue?
  
  If you are still running into problems please send me email (scottgu@microsoft.com) and I can loop you in with someone from the setup team to help.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Logic,
  
  >>>>>>> After upgrading a Test Project to VS 2008, all my Ajax controls now fail with the error: "The control with ID 'myMycontrolId requires a ScriptManager on the page. The ScriptManager must appear before any controls that need it. " However, when I run same applications on VS 2005, which I still have installed, they work just fine.
  
  If you can send me an email (scottgu@microsoft.com) with details on this, I can loop you in with someone to take a look.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Adam,
  
  >>>>>>>> For some reason, when I upgraded from Beta 2 to RTM (uninstalled everything to do with the Beta), .NET 2.0 SP1 didn't get installed (or 3.0 SP1). So now I'm getting stacks of different errors from Visual Studio because it's trying to access things like the Visible property of System.Design.Web.UI.ViewRendering or something. Clearly, because it's trying to work with the old 2.0 framework.
  
  If you are still having this issue can you send me email? I can then loop you in with someone to help.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hey Scott,
  
  Congrats on the release.
  
  Any news on the Web deployment projects for VS 2008?
  

• Hi Eric,
  
  >>>>>>> Any news on the Web deployment projects for VS 2008?
  
  We should have a Web Deployment Project download available for VS 2008 later this week.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Scott,
  
  I noticed that I seemed to use Intellisense on my LINQ queries after installing the RTM... The code will turn red and underline itself like it detects and exception, but it will compile and work perfectly? Thoughts?
  

• Hi Chase,
  
  >>>>>>> I noticed that I seemed to use Intellisense on my LINQ queries after installing the RTM... The code will turn red and underline itself like it detects and exception, but it will compile and work perfectly? Thoughts?
  
  This sounds like a setup failure. Can you send me email (scottgu@microsoft.com) about it and I can get someone to help?
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Scott,
  I have VS 2005 and recently uninstalled vs2008 beta 2 and installed VS2008 RTM trial edition, but for some when i create a console app, the LINQ features like select , for , where are not resolving but, exsing console project are working, only the newly created ones are not working, Any idea why ?
  

• I uninstalled VS2008 Beta2 and tried installing the RTM version. It fails during .NET 3.5 installation. Digging through the logs, I find the following error:
  
  Product: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 -- Error 1921.Service 'IIS Admin' (iisadmin) could not be stopped. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to stop system services.
  
  The search engines are silent on the problem. I have admin privileges and iisadmin isn't even running on my machine. Any ideas?
  

• For dumb pple like me, who kinda uninstalled the components first before uninstalling VS2008 beta, you will face the error message
  "Vista Client Common Utilities exists" when trying to install the RTM.
  
  You can run via CMD prompt to remove it:
  > msiexec /x {A922F4CD-6129-4B8A-A00D-C6185C1A39B2}
  

• I uninstalled anything in that list and still get that message coming up during the VS 2008 setup. Not sure what else to try.
  

• I had to get rid of a couple Vista components (not quite sure how they got on my PC, maybe it was for some SDK). I uninstalled it via add/remove however, there were still install files from it lingering around. I ended up finally using the windows install cleanup utility to knock out the rest of what was left behind after removing those vista components from my XP machine.
  

• to uninstall Microsoft Windows SDK Intellisense and Reference Assemblies (6001.16533.121) use command :
  msiexec /x {68CE30BC-365D-4BC6-A8F4-520899B6FECD}
  

• msiexec /x {68CE30BC-365D-4BC6-A8F4-520899B6FECD}
  uninstalls Microsoft Windows SDK Intellisense and Reference Assemblies (6001.16533.121)
  

• Sorry This may not be relavant to this post but i hope u guys will help me
  Anyone downloaded the VS2008 Prof edition 90days trial. i downloaded it on my GPRS connection(so tedius :( ) and now when i try to install it it gives me "error 1330: cab6 does not have valid digital signature".
  Now what to do? I searched google but what i got from there is that i should redownload it. NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Sir, I cant redownload it (3.30 GB) on my 7kbps download speed. Does anyone have other way to overcome this or to download only the cab6 file.
  If anyone have this trial edition and is working fine then please mail me the cab6 file plzzzzz
  Please Help MEeeeeeeeee!!!!!
  Thanks in adavance