Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5 Released

260 Comments

• Was it removed again? I've just been checking my MSDN Subscriptions page and it's gone (including the betas). I wanna update umbraco for 3.5, so I'm crossing my fingers that it'll come back soon :-)
  

• Hi Hartvig,
  
  >>>>>> Was it removed again? I've just been checking my MSDN Subscriptions page and it's gone (including the betas). I wanna update umbraco for 3.5, so I'm crossing my fingers that it'll come back soon :-)
  
  It should be updated soon. There are a lot of different versions to prop on MSDN, so the links will probably trickle in throughout the day. So keep hitting refresh. :-)
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Is the MVC Framework included with the Visual Studio 2008 Express editions?
  

• I don't see it on MSDN either...I have MSDN premium.
  

• Congratz with this excellent achievement!
  

• I am uninstalling beta2 now.
  
  One question, is the intellisense support for external libraries improved with this version. I found the beta2 to be nearly useless as referencing extjs files killed all intellisense there after and since I develop in extjs, this is production killer for me. And I hate switching between VS and Aptana to fullfill my needs.
  

• Hi John,
  
  >>>>>>> Is the MVC Framework included with the Visual Studio 2008 Express editions?
  
  We aren't shipping the MVC framework today - that will come later (the first public preview will be shortly).
  
  The ASP.NET MVC Framework will work with VS 2008 as well as Visual Web Developer 2008 Express.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  

• As of 2pm EST, all of the links bring me back to MSDN Subscriptions page. I'm signed in, and I tried in IE7 and Firefox.
  
  On the MSDN Subscriber Downloads page Visual Studio 2008 isn't yet listed.
  

• Congratulate Scott For yet another milestone.
  

• Not seeing it either....Anti-climax time. Jumping the gun announcing it perhaps?
  

• Quick question. Are there any breaking changes between the production version and the Beta 2?
  
  Thanks
  Luis F Fleitas
  

• I found it on the main page /subscriptions/default.aspx of the msdn.microsoft.com site.
  
  Search the page for "Top Subscriber Downloads".
  
  I did NOT find it listed under "Developer Tools" in the main MSDN Library download UI that I'm used to.
  
  I had to disable the IE pop-up blocker and the Google Toolbar pop-up blocker first in order for it to start downloading.
  
  You must also install the Akamai Web Downloading Plug-in (ActiveX control) in order to use these download links.
  

• Hey Now Scott,
  A Very exciting time. So many new features!
  Thx,
  Catto
  

• Are there any requirements to installing this if you already have Beta 2 installed? I know there were a few hoops to jump through for 2005 and its betas.
  

• When/where can people (who aren't MSDN members) purchase VS2008? I just looked on Amazon and it is not available yet there.
  

• I have been waiting for this release like a kid on Christmas eve.
  
  Is there a feature comparison matrix for VS 2008?
  

• Awesome, I have installed the RTM version. Thanks. Looking forward to MVC framework.
  

• Awesome!
  Are there going to be any additions to the Quickstart Tutorials for version 3.5?
  

• @Dylan
  Turn off popup blockers in IE.
  Nothing was happening for me and I only saw a quick flash of "pop blocked".
  Then the Akamai plugin installs and download starts...
  

• The trial is awesome! Just what we needed, because we don't want to wait another 3 months.
  
  I was wondering: is anything changed in the rendering of ASP.NET webcontrols to finally make ASP.NET 100% XHTML compliant (instead of 99%)?
  

• Great news! The wait is finally over! Thanks to your team for all their hard work!
  

• I am attempting to install the RTM of VS2008 Professional and I get a message "Setup has detected that this computer does not meet the requirements to install this software". The message states that Windows XP Service Pack 2 is needed, even though I am using Vista. Help...
  

• Can I use/access my TFS 1.0 with the VS2008 Professional build ? I'm downloading the bits. I know that I needed a client for VS2005. If not, will this Visual Studio client for TFS be available?
  

• Can Microsoft produce a complete list of bug fixes? Maybe based on the issues on Microsoft Connect?
  

• Hi Scott
  
  When will VS 2008 be available for purchase? I dont have an MSDN subsciption and heard it wasnt until Jan/Feb with SQL 2008...is this the case?
  
  Thx
  

• Will there also be a download of the .Net 2.0 SP1 distributable for installation on Windows 2000 Professional and Windows 2000 Server?
  

• Scott,
  Thanks to you and your team for all the hard work! Did shipping today have anything todo with the Jolt award deadline? :)
  

• Great news, hopefully the ASP.NET Designer works better now and does not complain all the time like in Beta 2 :)
  

• Where do I get my Key For this new update? I can't find my Key on mu MSDN Key list!
  
  Thanks!
  

• FOUND IT! - turn OFF IE7's or Firefox's BUILT-IN popup-blocker.
  
  Geez, very bad page design.
  

• Scott, is there a listing anywhere of what new features are available in 2.0 projects while using 2008? I understand that lamda expressions are, for instance (I think), while LINQ I believe is not, but a complete list would be great.
  

• Hi Jeremy,
  
  >>>>>> Any idea when this will be on the Volume Licensing site? (http://licensing.microsoft.com)
  
  VS 2008 should show up on volume licensing shortly.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Luis,
  
  >>>>>> Quick question. Are there any breaking changes between the production version and the Beta 2?
  
  There are a few changes. In general you'll want to re-open your .dbml files created with the LINQ to SQL designer and re-build them. The LINQ to SQL OnValidate partial method now takes an enum as an argument. Instead of DataContext.Add you'll now use DataContext.InsertOnSubmit() with LINQ to SQL. And the ListView control's item placeholder is now called "ItemContainer" I think (the error message explictly tells you).
  
  Having said that, I think upgrading projects built with Beta2 should be pretty straightforward and only take a few minutes.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Brian,
  
  >>>>>>> When/where can people (who aren't MSDN members) purchase VS2008? I just looked on Amazon and it is not available yet there.
  
  We just handed off the golden master DVDs to manufacturing, so they will start burning copies and churning out boxes shortly. Retail copies of VS 2008 will start hitting resellers in about 8-10 weeks I think - so expect to see them starting to sell in January.
  
  In the meantime, you can download the trial edition I linked to at the top of my blog post. This has all the functionality of the retail copies (and anyone can download it). It will expire in 90 days - at which point you should have been able to buy a copy from Amazon (or anyone else you want).
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Just finished downloading it and at the end Akamai D/L manager told me that it failed the integrity check (and it deleted the whole iso file).
  
  Little frustrated, but I'll wait a little and try again tonight :)
  

• Congrats! Just in time for something to play with over the long weekend!
  

• Can 2008 be installed on a box with VS 2003 without interfering with 2003?
  

• will it be possible to convert trial edition of VS2k8 Team Suite to full version?
  

• Can 2008 be installed on a box with VS 2003 without interfering with 2003?
  

• Will the existing AJAXControlToolkit 3.5 Beta 2 work with the RTM?
  

• The Akamai Web Downloading Plug-in Crashed when I was at 99% of download, I tried going back the "Top Downloads site" but when I tried downloading it again by clicking on the VS 2008 Pro Edition I now receive an error. After refreshing the page the download links are now gone...I was so close!
  

• Great work guys, I am really looking forward to sinking my teeth into that scrumptious feature set.
  
  You are the bomb, Scott. Keep up the great work, and buy your teams a drink tonight!
  

• Are there any issues uninstalling VS2008 Beta 2. I remember you released a tool for uninstalling the VS2005 Beta/RC's, because the uninstaller didn't work. Are you going to release something similar for VS2008 Beta 2? I myself only used VS2008 inside VPC's, but I know some colleagues who might want to uninstall VS2008 Beta 2.
  

• Has Microsoft released the feature breakdown per edition? My company has been using a mixture of VSTS Developer and Professional. Since unit testing was moved to Professional we are wondering why we would stick with Developer. A feature list per SKU for 2008 would be great. -Thanks.
  

• They always talk about shortening dev time and increasing productivity with every new version. Of every sw. By now, projects should be done even before I click on File->New Project:) Kiding of course! I think LINQ is one step towards to that. MVC and Silverlight w/o JS will be.
  

• What is happening with the Asp.NET source code release now that 2008 is official?
  

• Hello Scott
  
  I have downloaded Visual Web Developer Express 2008 played with it a bit. My question is why is the web.config so ugly and confusing compared to the clean, simple .NET 2.0 config? Sure there are lots of new features like Linq and many others, but aren't they suppose to be integrated into VS by now? Will web.config 3.5 always look this messy?
  

• Visual C++ Express Edition now comes with a x64 compiler?
  

• Any idea what SKU devconnections attendees will be getting?
  

• I don't get it. it's not tuesday!
  
  BTW, great job on the listview. Maybe I've done my last repeater.
  

• I get the following error after converting my VS 2005 MS AJAX project to VS 2008 Express...
  
  "The SupportsPartialRendering property cannot be changed after the Init event." I never had that issue before & I'm not setting SupportsPartialRendering or EnablePartialRendering anywhere in code.
  
  Is this a known issue? In the meantime I guess I will go back to VS 2005 until I can resolve this.
  
  If you know how to resolve this please let me know. Thanks!
  

• Congrats on the release!
  I'm sure the RTM is as good as the beta promised.
  

• Any recommendations for those who will try a side-by-side install with VS2005? I currently have VS 2005 with all the .NET 3.0 goodness on Win XP (.NET 3.0 Runtime, Windows SDK and VS extensions for WCF, WPF & WF). So I'll be looking to shift my primary environment to VS2008 as soon as I can (multi-targeting is the first thing I'm trying, BTW), but just wanted to see if there was anything I should uninstall before slapping it on my machine. Or anything that might cause me to be unable to uninstall VS2005 later on?
  

• If I install the 90 day trial version of VS2008 Pro, will I be able to convert it to the full version when I buy it on release, or will I need to reinstall it again?
  

• A bit sad because of missing MVC !
  

• Wow, 127mb for the full runtime redistributable. That's insanely big. Is there a smaller version of the redistributable we can download?
  
  Framework 2.0 - 22.4 mb
  Framework 3.0 - 50.3 mb
  Framework 3.5 - 127 mb *gasp*
  
  Does .Net framework follow Moore's law too?
  

• Just one question: I'm getting used to Visual [Programming Language] Express 2005. I've been teaching myself C# with a couple of books that seem to rely on certain Visual Studio C# 2003 features that aren't quite the same in V[PL] Express 2005.
  
  Am I likely to find myself in the same bother with Visual [PL] Express 2008?
  
  Thanks
  

• I had a look around but I could not find any info on comparing the different versions (Express, Std, Pro, Team) anyone no of where I can find this info?
  

• Congratulations ScottGu.
  
  You and your team have done a fantastic job.
  
  3.5 with Linq and Ajax support is great.
  
  We now look forward to MVC and DLR fully implemented with Dynamic Languages support.
  
  Thanks
  
  SoftMind Systems
  

• Oy! So Microsoft has finally shipped Visual Studio 2008. When time permits, I really am looking forward to trying it out! Hopefully Visual C++ native performance will be...
  

• Hi CoryR,
  
  >>>>>>> I am attempting to install the RTM of VS2008 Professional and I get a message "Setup has detected that this computer does not meet the requirements to install this software". The message states that Windows XP Service Pack 2 is needed, even though I am using Vista. Help...
  
  I believe this problem is because Vista is running setup in application compatibility mode. This blog post describes how to fix this: http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2007/05/08/2491743.aspx
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Great Stuff !!!
  
  Vikas
  

• What a news You made my day. Congratulation to you and your team for the great effort to get this out in shut time frame. Cant wait to download the stuff
  

• Wonderful, Scott!
  
  I've been wired to see this since your keynote at DevConnections in Vegas. Thanks for the hard work you and your team put into this.
  
  Keith
  

• Scott, do you know if the ADO.NET Entity Framework Beta 2 will work with the RTM bits? If not, do you have an updated CTP will be available that will work with RTM?
  
  BTW, congrats on shipping!
  

• Scott,
  
  Congratulations to you and your team for this monumental release! What is most commendable is the fantastic lead-up period that let the developer community become comfortable with the new tools and technologies even before they were released. Bravo!
  
  -Todd
  

• Hi Scott Williams,
  
  >>>>>>>> Are there any requirements to installing this if you already have Beta 2 installed? I know there were a few hoops to jump through for 2005 and its betas.
  
  I have a few uninstallation steps that I listed above. In general, I'd recommend uninstalling all of the Beta2 components, rebooting, and then doing installation of the RTM bits.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Mike,
  
  >>>>>> I was wondering: is anything changed in the rendering of ASP.NET webcontrols to finally make ASP.NET 100% XHTML compliant (instead of 99%)?
  
  New controls like the control support 100% markup customization. Older controls still emit the same markup that they did for compatibility reasons. You can use control adapters for customization of this if you want though.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Mike,
  
  >>>>>>> Can Microsoft produce a complete list of bug fixes? Maybe based on the issues on Microsoft Connect?
  
  I believe someone is putting a list together of this, but I don't think it is published yet.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Osiris209,
  
  >>>>>>>> When will VS 2008 be available for purchase? I dont have an MSDN subsciption and heard it wasnt until Jan/Feb with SQL 2008...is this the case?
  
  VS 2008 will be available for purchase outside of MSDN early next year. In the meantime, you can download the trial edition which is good for 90 days. This should tide you over until then.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Remco,
  
  >>>>>> Will there also be a download of the .Net 2.0 SP1 distributable for installation on Windows 2000 Professional and Windows 2000 Server?
  
  Yes - I believe the .NET 2.0 SP1 redist will work on Windows 2000 as well.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Ray,
  
  >>>>>>>> Thanks to you and your team for all the hard work! Did shipping today have anything todo with the Jolt award deadline? :)
  
  I can safetly say no. :-)
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Troy,
  
  >>>>>>>> Scott, is there a listing anywhere of what new features are available in 2.0 projects while using 2008? I understand that lamda expressions are, for instance (I think), while LINQ I believe is not, but a complete list would be great.
  
  Unfortunately I don't know of a complete list I'm afraid. I do know that all the CSS features, split-view, JavaScript intellisense, JavaScript debugging, database publishing features all work with .NET 2.0 projects.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Darin,
  
  >>>>>>> Can 2008 be installed on a box with VS 2003 without interfering with 2003?
  
  Yes - you can install VS 2008 and VS 2003 safetly side by side.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Edison,
  
  >>>>>>> Will the existing AJAXControlToolkit 3.5 Beta 2 work with the RTM?
  
  In theory they probably will, but I'd recommend upgrading the a version of the AJAXControlToolkit built against the final RTM version. This is now available for download here: http://www.codeplex.com/AtlasControlToolkit/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=8513
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Izandman,
  
  >>>>>> Are there any issues uninstalling VS2008 Beta 2. I remember you released a tool for uninstalling the VS2005 Beta/RC's, because the uninstaller didn't work. Are you going to release something similar for VS2008 Beta 2? I myself only used VS2008 inside VPC's, but I know some colleagues who might want to uninstall VS2008 Beta 2.
  
  The standard uninstall process should work. We don't know of any issues requiring a separate cleaner.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi David,
  
  >>>>>> Has Microsoft released the feature breakdown per edition? My company has been using a mixture of VSTS Developer and Professional. Since unit testing was moved to Professional we are wondering why we would stick with Developer. A feature list per SKU for 2008 would be great.
  
  Unfortunately I don't know if this has been published just yet. I believe it will be in the future though.
  
  Sorry!
  
  Scott
  
  

• Hi Ryan,
  
  >>>>>> What is happening with the Asp.NET source code release now that 2008 is official?
  
  We'll be shipping the source code to the .NET Framework (including ASP.NET) in a few weeks.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Mohammed,
  
  >>>>>> I have downloaded Visual Web Developer Express 2008 played with it a bit. My question is why is the web.config so ugly and confusing compared to the clean, simple .NET 2.0 config? Sure there are lots of new features like Linq and many others, but aren't they suppose to be integrated into VS by now? Will web.config 3.5 always look this messy?
  
  The default web.config file adds ASP.NET AJAX support in addition to LINQ. You can remove these settings if you want - but in general you'll want them there if you are using AJAX and LINQ in your application.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Peter,
  
  >>>>>>> Visual C++ Express Edition now comes with a x64 compiler?
  
  Unfortunately the express edition only comes with a 32-bit compiler. The main reason was due to size (the 64-bit compiler more than doubles the size).
  
  Sorry,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Wonderblast,
  
  >>>>>>> Any idea what SKU devconnections attendees will be getting?
  
  I believe the DevConnections attendees will be receiving Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Elijah,
  
  >>>>>>> I get the following error after converting my VS 2005 MS AJAX project to VS 2008 Express... "The SupportsPartialRendering property cannot be changed after the Init event." I never had that issue before & I'm not setting SupportsPartialRendering or EnablePartialRendering anywhere in code.
  
  I haven't seen that issue before. If you can send me an email with more details (scottgu@microsoft.com) I can get someone on my team to take a look and help you with it.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Carlos,
  
  >>>>>> Any recommendations for those who will try a side-by-side install with VS2005? I currently have VS 2005 with all the .NET 3.0 goodness on Win XP (.NET 3.0 Runtime, Windows SDK and VS extensions for WCF, WPF & WF). So I'll be looking to shift my primary environment to VS2008 as soon as I can (multi-targeting is the first thing I'm trying, BTW), but just wanted to see if there was anything I should uninstall before slapping it on my machine. Or anything that might cause me to be unable to uninstall VS2005 later on?
  
  There shouldn't be any problems with side-by-side with this. Let me know if you run into issue with it!
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Dominic,
  
  >>>>>> If I install the 90 day trial version of VS2008 Pro, will I be able to convert it to the full version when I buy it on release, or will I need to reinstall it again?
  
  Unfortunately I'm not 100% sure of the answer to this.
  
  Sorry!
  
  Scott
  

• Hi David,
  
  >>>>>> Wow, 127mb for the full runtime redistributable. That's insanely big. Is there a smaller version of the redistributable we can download?
  
  I believe there are a couple of redists you can download. That redist has everything, and will work for both a clean machine, as well as a machine that has the various different options in it (.NET 3.0, .NET 2.0 SPs, etc). We will be coming out with a smaller redist in the future that you can use for clean machine scenarios.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Erik,
  
  >>>>>> Scott, do you know if the ADO.NET Entity Framework Beta 2 will work with the RTM bits? If not, do you have an updated CTP will be available that will work with RTM?
  
  The older bits won't work - but there is an ADO.NET Entitiy Framework update coming shortly that will work on the RTM bits.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Awesome this is...
  

• Is there a way to get Team Explorer without downloading the whole TFS build? Is the 2008 Team Explorer compatible with the 2005 release of TFS?
  

• Nice... i hope this build can 100% support CSS Web Designer.
  

• Scott are the Friendly Control Adapters implemented in VS 2008 or is it still a seperate download? If they are will the download be able to target VS 2008?
  

• From my own experience from installing the beta this version seems to change ISS config, which in my case rendered the dotnetnuke framework unusable. I had to uninstall everything including ISS to be able to get VS2005 working properly again - Is this fixed? If not I cannot upgrade!
  
  I attended the MS conference in London recently, and like most of the new features.
  

• Hi Scott,
  
  I have been unable to find a download of .Net 2.0 SP1. It says it is included in .Net 3.5 redistributable, but this won't install on Win2k. If I extract the files from .Net 3.5 redistributable then I can see a folder for .Net 2.0 (presumably including SP1) but the msi won't install without a setup.exe. Can you help me install .Net 2.0 SP1 on Win2k please?
  
  cheers
  
  Remco
  

• I can see that .NET 3.5 redist is available. Are there any plans to release a .NET 3.5 SDK, independently from VS2008?
  

• Amazing, this IDE just keeps getting more powerful. Congrats to your team.
  
  1. Will 2005 Express editions remain available for download and for how long?
  
  2. Is pricing the same? Can I upgrade from 2005 Standard to 2008 Pro for the upgrade price?
  
  3. Will retail purchase be only available after the February launch?
  
  4. Any other minor features dropped in 2008 apart from J#?
  
  5. All websites will be updated soon or after the launch? I would like a detailed comparison table for editions, more detailed than the one for VS 2005. Is developing a Windows service for example not available yet in Standard edition?
  
  6. Are there ANY plans for servicing .NET 1.1 SP1?
  
  7. Can the trial version be upgraded to the full version by entering the product key purchased later?
  

• Great work, Scott! One question though: when will localized versions of VS2008 hit MSDN?
  

• Hey Scott, I noticed VS2008 wants to convert my existing VS2005 solutions. Why? The problem is that the converted solutions cannot be opened in VS2005 anymore, which some of my team members still use. I thought VS2008's multi-targeting support didn't require me to have VS2005 installed anymore, but now I still have to install them side-by-side.
  

• Hello,
  
  How to remove beta2 versions? I can´t uninstall VC# Express and .NET 3.5 beta2..
  

• when attempting to install the Development edition on Windows Vista I get the error "Suite Integration Toolkit Executable has stopped working" and the install fails.
  
  Thanks
  Richard.
  

• Hi,
  
  Is there any example available on the web for "WinForms and WPF projects can also now use the ASP.NET Application Services (Membership, Roles, Profile) for roaming user data. " ?
  
  And what's up with WCF in a XBAP application ? What's supported by .net 3.5 ?
  

• Scott,
  
  I got everything installed, VS opens just fine, but when I try and create a new project or even just close a box pops up saying, "Visual Studio has encountered an unexpected error." Eventually I can get it to crash and end task. I made sure all Beta bits were uninstalled and rebooted. The first time I ran into this I did a repair, then this morning I uninstalled and reinstalled, still same error.
  
  Has anyone else run into this yet?
  
  Thanks,
  
  ~ Steve
  

• One question Scott regarding GridView. If newer version of this control shiped with VS 2008 let me access controls in Item,Edit Templates etc without dirty FindControl("ctrlName").
  
  I know for a fact it isnt easy thing, but i was praying to go to have such functionality, for ex: myGridView.ItemTemplate.MyDropDownList....
  

• Still no resource editor available in VC++ Express Edition?
  I understand the reasons MFC libs are excluded but the resource editor is really necessary for anyone who writes in Win32 API.
  

• Am I the only who have problems to download the Team Foundation Server Workgroup Edition ? I receive immediately from the Akmai Download manager a "Fatal Error" ! Vs Pro and Vs team Edition were correctly downloaded (so I presume it isn't an issue with my client)
  

• That Akamai downloader sucks donkey. It quit on me twice at 80% and 78% and it doesn't let you resume from a 'Fatal Error'. The regular Microsoft downloader ActiveX control is MUCH MUCH MUCH better.
  

• When will the Professional version be released to purchase ( From Amazon.com, etc. ) for the regular peeps?
  

• Any chance we'll have a .NET 3.5 SDK?
  

• This is great and I am installing it now. Hoping this will provide fix some of the issue with .Net web applications running under IIS7. I cannot wait for Silverlight 1.1 to be release and the add-in to fully support Silverlight 1.1 development.
  
  One important question though.
  
  Why does the 3.5 framework install install a bunch of files in the Microsoft.Net\Framework\v2.0.50727 directory? Is this to fix bugs reported in this version? Since this looks like it actually replaces file, this could cause problems with existing applications. This really needs to be made known to everyone, since replacement of older files in this directory might require a lot more testing of existing application before some companies would allow this to be deployed to production (depending on the response to this inquire).
  

• Hi Scott, is there a reason the MVC release has been delayed from the 2008 RTM? Will we have to wait a lot longer to get this or is this only a few days away?
  
  Monday, October 15, 2007 2:31 AM by ScottGu
  
  Hi NGoc,
  
  >>>>> Will MVC Framework be include in VS 2008 RTM?
  
  The MVC Framework will work with VS 2008 RTM (we'll be releasing the first preview release of it at the same time as VS 2008 RTM). The MVC framework itself will live in a separate assembly to begin with, and then be built-in to .NET 3.5 SP1.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• At last! Yes Yes Yes
  
  Congratulations for shipping :-)
  

• Do you have any idea when VS 2008 will be shipped to those attending the Dev Connections Conference in Las Vegas (Nov. 5 - Nov. 8)?
  

• Hi Scott, is there an option in Visual Studio 2008 to highlight the current line I'm editing? This feature was missing from 2005 and I really don't think it justifies downloading an addin just to have what should be a built-in editor option.
  

• Error installing VS2008 Professional - Can't intstall 'Web Authoring Component'
  
  I didn't know where else to turn... It seems the VS Installation forum is not being monitored. I am trying to install on windows xp professional that has NOT had any of the VS2008/Orcas Beta's installed (but is my primary VS2005 machine).
  

• Are there official signatures for the ISOs anywhere, to verify a valid download? In particular, I'm looking for the Test System one.
  
  I used the Akamai downloader twice, but both times it made it to 99% and then reported a corrupt download.
  
  I discarded those and downloaded using Firefox, to bypass the downloader, and I managed to install VS, but the MSDN installer reported a corrupt cab file.
  

• When will the VS 2008 Professional version be available to purchase ( Amazon.com, etc. ) for the regular peeps?
  

• Thanks Scott! The tip about how to share projects between VS2005 and VS2008 was just what I was looking for. Now I can honestly say, woohoo! VS2008, here I come! :-)
  

• First off, Congrats!
  
  Second: what about pricing for all of us non-MSDN chumps?
  

• Congrats Scott.
  
  I loaded VS2008 onto a fresh Windows Vista box with all patches and tried to convert the solution files of out Visual FoxPro community website. It has no problems converting Class Library projects. However, it fails to convert the main ASP.NET 2.0 Web Application project file. It displays a messagebox titled "Visual Studio Conversion Wizard Error". The error message is "System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException" which is rather useless. When I click the only button (OK), I can check the conversion log file. There it says that all files are converted correctly and there's no sign of the COMException. Any hints?
  

• Anyone else getting a message saying 3.5 pre-release has not been uninstalled, when it in fact has been uninstalled via the Control Panel?
  
  Any idea what reg keys I'm missing or some other manual way to wipe this?
  
  Thanks,
  -Scott
  

• Scott,
  
  I've installed everything and any menu item (or if I try and close) throws an error, "Vistual Studio has encountered an unexpected error."
  
  I've repaired, and even reinstalled everything. Has anyone else run into this issue?
  
  Thanks,
  
  ~ Steve
  

• This is awesome, I was just babycrying to my teammates to change to VS2008 :)
  

• If you have VS2005, once you are sure that all your projects work in VS2008 is there any issues with uninstalling VS2005? If so what are they and how do you overcome them? What exactly should be uninstalled for VS2005?
  

• Is there some trick to have Business Intelligence projects in VS2008? Will it work with SQL Reporting services 2005 or must I install SQL 2008? Thanks,
  

• Hi Scott,
  Thanks for your wonderful work:)
  I have some questions ;)
  1-How can i download your nice articles for using offline?
  2-can we do programming for silverlight 1.0 with VS 2008?
  3-do you have any plan for integrating the silverlight with .net framework or at least the tools for programming silverlight?
  and the last questions is about silverlight !
  I wnat to know why the silverlight 1.1 could not run the sample that is written with silverlight 1.0 and I have problem with the silverlight 1.0 samples I could not run them with the release version of silverlight 1.0 , I replace the JS files.
  and can i contact with you through ScottGu@microsoft.com ?
  Thanks a lot
  Arash
  

• is there a link to find a side by side comparaison of the different vs2008 versions.
  

• Hi, Scott,
  
  I installed VS2008 Team Trail version today. It seems the way How LINQ to Sql works is changed a lot from beta2. The generated entity classes doesn't support operations on entity collections, such as "RemoveAll()" and "Add(...)". Those functions do exist in VS2008 Orcas beta2. So without those function how can I delete/add the single item from/to a table by using the DLINQ entity class? Thanks.
  
  -Kevin
  

• The Akamai downloader is a piece of junk! I've attempted to download the file from the 'Top Downloads' section of the MSDN subscriber site three times and all three times I've gotten the following error:
  
  Download Manager - Error
  The requested file is not available for download. Contact the author of the page that contains the link. This download will be canceled.
  
  I've hit completion percents of 78%, 90% and 88%. I've downloaded over 10 GB so far and each time it has to restart from scratch. Very frustrating!!!
  
  I never had this kind of problem with the standard Microsoft MSDN subscriber download browser plug-in.
  

• Very newbee type question. I opened an existing C# project, VS2008 went through the mechanics of converting the project and presenting the interface. The project is targetted for .NEt 2.0 platform but I am still able to use var x=10; and compile just fine with no errors! Am I missing something? I thought this statement was not supposed to compile if target is .NET 2.0. Please help and I apologize if this has been answered already.
  
  Rajesh
  

• hi scott,
  just wanted to say "thank you" for posting very useful info at your blog! please keep up the good work. screenshots and code snippets often make things easy to understand.
  respect + thanks, toebens
  

• Hope i can install 2003,2005 and 2008 side by side with (out :)) any issues..dwnloading the vs2008 images....
  
  Senthil
  

• Hi Scott. Do you know if MS will be sticking with the C# 3.0 and VB 9.0 nomenclature, or will the languages officially become C# 2008 and VB 2008? Congrats on the timely RTM. Thanks.
  

• Wow. I did exactly what you said to remove the Beta2 framework, ide, and the web authoring component...in the end I can't do anything inside Visual Studio 2008. It reports that "Visual Studio 2008 has encountered an unexpected error." no matter what I try to do...be it closing the application, launching the 'about' screen, or trying to create a new project. Classic. Good thing I got plenty of virtual machines and backups.
  

• Can I slap the framework 3.5 on Windows Server 2003 machine and deploy applications developed in VS 2008 and expect them to work?? I guess the question I am trying to get answered is is there anything about VS 2008 that would only work on Vista??? Will the standard web apps (with linq) work fine on win server 2003?
  

• Help!! On my 3rd download attempt. 48% and 98% and....FATAL ERROR. Have to start the thing all over again.
  

• Akamai download "manager" just told me during my second download attempt that the file (Vis Stud Prof 2008 RTM) is no longer available and terminated my download. I have a 4G per month cap on my braodband connection that is now totally wasted. Could they not at least give us a decent download manager?
  

• I have nothing to say. Nothing is better than this. thank you,MS
  

• This was released on my birthday! Sweet!
  

• Hello Scott,
  
  Since the official Asp.Net 3.5, VS 2008 and VWD are available with Linq,.... can we expect new updated DATABASE tutorials by Scott Mitchell based on LINQ.
  
  Are there any plans for New Updated Starter kits based on LINQ, AJAX and CSS Controllers.
  
  Since none of the Starter Kits are updated by asp.net team since last 2 years, it would be a right time to do so.
  
  For the community and By the community is also shut down, so we have to depend much on asp.net team for a start.
  
  Thanks
  

• Excellent! I haven't been able to get any of the betas to run ... downloading this now and crossing my fingers.
  

• When the Akamai Download manager starts, I receive this error:
  "There's a persistent network connectivity error..."
  I am using a Microsoft ISA Server Proxy: how must I configure it to allow the download?
  Thanks in advance for your help
  

• Awesome!!!I am going to download it now!!
  

• Hi Scott..Congrats to you and your team!!!
  
  One question - Where can i find the release notes for .NET 2.0 SP1 ?
  

• Hi Scott
  
  I get the following error when dragging the Wizard control onto the design surface of a web page or web user control:
  
  "Error Creating Control - Wizard1: The type initializer for 'Microsoft.Web.Design.ExtenderInformationServiceProvider' threw and exception."
  
  Is this a know issue or is it just a problem with my installation?
  
  Thanks
  

• Just started to use Visual Studio 2008 that I’ve downloaded from my MSDN subscription. There seems to be an issue when I’m in an aspx page and I hit F7, I would expect the Code View page to appear. It does not open. Also the View Code menu option is missing form the menu when right clicking on the aspx page?
  
  Is this a bug, or a config issue?
  
  Thanks
  Andy
  

• I am also getting the "Visual Studio has encountered an unexpected error." message when every I do just about anything in Studio. I didn't have the beta intalled, but I do have a few addins Visualsvn and Testdriven.net
  

• IS there an updated MSDN library for 2008? The BETA had a library iso, but I can't seem to find it for 2008 (maybe I'm just blind and can't see it on the main page-I didn't have any problems downloading studio).
  
  Oh yeah: AWESOME!
  

• Many thanks to this notes.
  It was really helpful to get aware of all new features in VS 2008.
  
  Thanks for you help
  

• Please let us know as soon as Web Deployment Projects for VS 2008 is available
  
  As always a great job Scott
  

• So I was all gung-ho and got VS2k8 installed on a fresh new Vista installation then went to install some 3rd party components (ComponentOne studio, ComponentArt) and was disappointed to find that ComponentOne wouldn't install at all because it requires some script in VS2k5 and ComponentArt installed but required some manual footwork to add the components into the toolbox. I would've thought VS2k5 and VS2k8 were compatible... guess I was wrong. :( Now I need to create a virtual machine to run 2k5 from in the meantime.
  

• Hi Scott,
  
  >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Visual C++ Express Edition now comes with a x64 compiler?
  
  >>>>>>>Unfortunately the express edition only comes with a 32-bit compiler. The main reason was due to size (the >>>>>>>64-bit compiler more than doubles the size).
  
  Does this mean VC++ Express 2008 cannot be used to create native x64 apps ?
  
  I ask because the MSDN docs imply that it can be used:
  
  
  64-bit tools are not available on Visual C++ Express Edition by default. To enable 64-bit tools on Visual C++ Express Edition, install the Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) in addition to Visual C++ Express Edition. Otherwise, an error occurs when you attempt to configure a project to target a 64-bit platform using Visual C++ Express Edition.
  
  
  I have tried installing Windows SDK and also the .NET SDK, but cannot configure VC++ 2008 Express to create native x64 EXE's. Is it possible and, if so, are there any step-by-step instructions on how to do this (including URl's of the exactly files/SDK's that need to be downloaded) ?
  
  
  PS. I'm loving the new /MP multi-process build option - It's cut my compilation time by two-thirds. :)
  

• Can't wait to play with this. Will it be available on msdnaa?
  

• Awesome! The best development suite on the planet!
  

• So I noticed in VS2008 that there is no template to create an 2.0 Ajax enabled WAP. Do we need to create our own template to continue creating 2.0 Ajax webs in VS2008? Is there, or will there be an update to Ajax 1.0 to add in VS2008 templates for .Net 2 WAPs?
  

• After installing VS2008 on a Vita business machine I expected to see another option to run the site under ASP.Net 3.5. Is there suppose to be another version option for ASP.Net?
  
  If so:
  
  1) How do you get it registered so it shows up (is there a aspnet_regiis utility just like there was for 1.1 and 2.0?
  2) Why was this not automatically added to IIS7?
  
  If Not,
  
  1) Why is there not a new version, since this is considered a majore release and not just a release that added new libraries like v3.0 did.
  

• It's nice!!!
  GO GO GO
  

• No classic ASP support in VS2008? What an absolute sickener. Maybe when .NET hosting is as cheap as classic ASP hosting in the UK we can persuade all our existing clients to upgrade. Perhaps Microsoft have been a little eager to forget all those paying customers...?
  
  ...and no I don't want to have VS2005 installed alongside it
  

• One of our 2.0 projects contains a typed dataset with 127 tables and since switching to VS2008 I have noticed that the IntelliSense has become extremely slow, if it works at all. I kid you not but the IDE freezes for about 3 minutes. In VS2005 the IntelliSense responds almost instantaneously with the exact same code. Also a rebuild of the solution (3 projects) takes less than 5 seconds in VS2005 whereas in VS2008 it takes over a minute. The exact same behaviour can also be reproduced on a colleague's machine.
  
  Needless to say but in view of this I’ll be reverting back to VS2005!
  
  

• Hi Scott,
  
  Is the workaround to fix multi-targeting support for AJAX 1.0 still required for the RTM version? In the workaround, you note that "this workaround will *not* be required for the VS 2008 RTM release"
  
  However, I still can't seem to get ajax 1.0 up and running with VS2008. I haven't tried the workaround yet, because I would prefer to get it working without workarounds if that's now possible.
  

• Hi Dillors,
  
  >>>>>> Scott are the Friendly Control Adapters implemented in VS 2008 or is it still a seperate download? If they are will the download be able to target VS 2008?
  
  These are still a separate download. They'll work with .NET 3.5 and VS 2008.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Lee,
  
  >>>>>> From my own experience from installing the beta this version seems to change ISS config, which in my case rendered the dotnetnuke framework unusable. I had to uninstall everything including ISS to be able to get VS2005 working properly again - Is this fixed? If not I cannot upgrade!
  
  .NET 3.5 shouldn't update your IIS settings. Let us know if you run into any issues with the final release on this.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Someone,
  
  >>>>>>> Amazing, this IDE just keeps getting more powerful. Congrats to your team.
  
  >>>>>>> 1. Will 2005 Express editions remain available for download and for how long?
  
  Yes, they'll remain free forever.
  
  >>>>>>> 2. Is pricing the same? Can I upgrade from 2005 Standard to 2008 Pro for the upgrade price?
  
  There are upgrade pricing options. I'm not 100% sure of what they all are (or how much), but I believe they are the same as the upgrade options with VS 2005.
  
  >>>>>>> 3. Will retail purchase be only available after the February launch?
  
  I believe retail will show up in a few weeks once price lists have been updated.
  
  >>>>>>> 4. Any other minor features dropped in 2008 apart from J#?
  
  That is the big one I know of - there are probably a few other functionality changes as well though.
  
  >>>>>>> 5. All websites will be updated soon or after the launch? I would like a detailed comparison table for editions, more detailed than the one for VS 2005. Is developing a Windows service for example not available yet in Standard edition?
  
  I believe Windows Service development is part of standard but am not 100% sure. You should see more details emerge on the Visual Studio Microsoft.com site.
  
  >>>>>>>> 6. Are there ANY plans for servicing .NET 1.1 SP1?
  
  We continue to service 1.1 in the event people run into issues. We don't have a future big service pack currently planned, but we do continue to release QFEs and GDR (mini patches).
  
  >>>>>>>> 7. Can the trial version be upgraded to the full version by entering the product key purchased later?
  
  Yes. If you install the trial edition, you can upgrade to a full version you buy without having to reinstall the product.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Christian,
  
  >>>>>>> Great work, Scott! One question though: when will localized versions of VS2008 hit MSDN?
  
  Localized versions will start showing up in the weeks ahead. The team is busily working on these now.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Rickbaker,
  
  >>>>>>> when attempting to install the Development edition on Windows Vista I get the error "Suite Integration Toolkit Executable has stopped working" and the install fails.
  
  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 Thierry,
  
  >>>>> Is there any example available on the web for "WinForms and WPF projects can also now use the ASP.NET Application Services (Membership, Roles, Profile) for roaming user data. " ?
  
  I need to try and dig up some samples on this.
  
  >>>>>> And what's up with WCF in a XBAP application ? What's supported by .net 3.5 ?
  
  WCF is now supported in XBAPs and partial trust. You can also now use XBAPs with FireFox.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Dancoe,
  
  >>>>>>> On regards to the web deployment projecy is it going to be fixed with the web application project? if dont know what i mean read my entry on my blog about web application project not working with web deployment project. undocnet.blogspot.com/.../web-application-project.html
  
  Web Deployment Projects should work with web application projects today. It could be that you have an older build of this which is what was causing you problems with VS 2005. They will also support WAP projects with VS 2008.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Steve Sloka,
  
  >>>>> I got everything installed, VS opens just fine, but when I try and create a new project or even just close a box pops up saying, "Visual Studio has encountered an unexpected error." Eventually I can get it to crash and end task. I made sure all Beta bits were uninstalled and rebooted. The first time I ran into this I did a repair, then this morning I uninstalled and reinstalled, still same error.
  
  It sounds like you might have had a setup failure. Can you send me email (scottgu@microsoft.com) and I'll loop you in with someone on the setup team to help fix it.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi ShaggyLi,
  
  >>>>>> When will the Professional version be released to purchase ( From Amazon.com, etc. ) for the regular peeps?
  
  Hopefully it will show up in the next few weeks. You can download the trial edition now if you want (and only enter the PID key once you buy it later).
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Smehaffie,
  
  >>>>>> Why does the 3.5 framework install install a bunch of files in the Microsoft.Net\Framework\v2.0.50727 directory? Is this to fix bugs reported in this version? Since this looks like it actually replaces file, this could cause problems with existing applications. This really needs to be made known to everyone, since replacement of older files in this directory might require a lot more testing of existing application before some companies would allow this to be deployed to production (depending on the response to this inquire).
  
  .NET 3.5 installs a service pack for .NET 2.0. Those are the changes you are seeing in that directory. This service pack can also be installed separate from .NET 3.5 if you want.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Laima,
  
  >>>>>>> Do you have any idea when VS 2008 will be shipped to those attending the Dev Connections Conference in Las Vegas (Nov. 5 - Nov. 8)?
  
  Unfortunately I don't have an exact ETA on this. It will take a few more weeks for us to actually have boxes created (we just handed off the golden master to manufacturing to start printing them).
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Adam,
  
  >>>>>>> Error installing VS2008 Professional - Can't intstall 'Web Authoring Component' I didn't know where else to turn... It seems the VS Installation forum is not being monitored. I am trying to install on windows xp professional that has NOT had any of the VS2008/Orcas Beta's installed (but is my primary VS2005 machine).
  
  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 Eric Den Doop,
  
  >>>>>>> I loaded VS2008 onto a fresh Windows Vista box with all patches and tried to convert the solution files of out Visual FoxPro community website. It has no problems converting Class Library projects. However, it fails to convert the main ASP.NET 2.0 Web Application project file. It displays a messagebox titled "Visual Studio Conversion Wizard Error". The error message is "System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException" which is rather useless. When I click the only button (OK), I can check the conversion log file. There it says that all files are converted correctly and there's no sign of the COMException. Any hints?
  
  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 Scott Parker,
  
  >>>>>>>> Anyone else getting a message saying 3.5 pre-release has not been uninstalled, when it in fact has been uninstalled via the Control Panel? Any idea what reg keys I'm missing or some other manual way to wipe this?
  
  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 Steve Sloka,
  
  >>>>>>> I've installed everything and any menu item (or if I try and close) throws an error, "Vistual Studio has encountered an unexpected error." I've repaired, and even reinstalled everything. Has anyone else run into this issue?
  
  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 Smehaffie,
  
  >>>>>>> If you have VS2005, once you are sure that all your projects work in VS2008 is there any issues with uninstalling VS2005? If so what are they and how do you overcome them? What exactly should be uninstalled for VS2005?
  
  No - there shouldn't be any issue with uninstalling VS 2005. VS 2008 doesn't require it to be on the box for multi-targetting to work.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Marcos,
  
  >>>>>> Scott, any chance you can fix up your RSS feed so it can display properly on the VS start page? Their current display on the start page make it too difficult to read. Just one jumbled text mess. Just an idea...
  
  I didn't realize they were syndicating it. :-) I just sent them mail to see if we can get this improved.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Kevin,
  
  >>>>>>> I installed VS2008 Team Trail version today. It seems the way How LINQ to Sql works is changed a lot from beta2. The generated entity classes doesn't support operations on entity collections, such as "RemoveAll()" and "Add(...)". Those functions do exist in VS2008 Orcas beta2. So without those function how can I delete/add the single item from/to a table by using the DLINQ entity class? Thanks.
  
  The Remove method is now call DeleteOnSubmit and the RemoveAll method is now called DeleteAllOnSubmit with the RTM release of LINQ to SQL. They made these changes to make it a little clearer when the delete operations occur.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  
  P.S. Add has changed to InsertOnSubmit in case you are looking for that one too!
  

• Hi Rajesh,
  
  >>>>>> Very newbee type question. I opened an existing C# project, VS2008 went through the mechanics of converting the project and presenting the interface. The project is targetted for .NEt 2.0 platform but I am still able to use var x=10; and compile just fine with no errors! Am I missing something? I thought this statement was not supposed to compile if target is .NET 2.0. Please help and I apologize if this has been answered already.
  
  The var keyword is actually a language keyword, and doesn't require .NET 3.5 in order to work. So if you are using multi-targetting, you can actually use this in VS 2008 with a .NET 2.0 project.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Brian,
  
  >>>>>> Hi Scott. Do you know if MS will be sticking with the C# 3.0 and VB 9.0 nomenclature, or will the languages officially become C# 2008 and VB 2008? Congrats on the timely RTM. Thanks.
  
  Good question - I'm not 100% sure. I suspect people will end up using both names to describe them.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Corey,
  
  >>>>>>> Wow. I did exactly what you said to remove the Beta2 framework, ide, and the web authoring component...in the end I can't do anything inside Visual Studio 2008. It reports that "Visual Studio 2008 has encountered an unexpected error." no matter what I try to do...be it closing the application, launching the 'about' screen, or trying to create a new project. Classic. Good thing I got plenty of virtual machines and backups.
  
  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 Ash,
  
  >>>>>>> Can I slap the framework 3.5 on Windows Server 2003 machine and deploy applications developed in VS 2008 and expect them to work?? I guess the question I am trying to get answered is is there anything about VS 2008 that would only work on Vista??? Will the standard web apps (with linq) work fine on win server 2003?
  
  Yes - that should work fine. All of the runtime components are in the .NET 3.5 package, and do not require vista.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi IronRuby,
  
  >>>>>>>> Since the official Asp.Net 3.5, VS 2008 and VWD are available with Linq,.... can we expect new updated DATABASE tutorials by Scott Mitchell based on LINQ. Are there any plans for New Updated Starter kits based on LINQ, AJAX and CSS Controllers. Since none of the Starter Kits are updated by asp.net team since last 2 years, it would be a right time to do so. For the community and By the community is also shut down, so we have to depend much on asp.net team for a start.
  
  Yes - you'll be seeing a lot of .NET 3.5 tutorials and samples appear in the months ahead.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi SmeHaffie,
  
  >>>>>>> After installing VS2008 on a Vita business machine I expected to see another option to run the site under ASP.Net 3.5. Is there suppose to be another version option for ASP.Net?
  
  .NET 3.5 actually uses the .NET 2.0 CLR - which is why there isn't an extra dropdown in IIS to configure this. As long as you select .NET 2.0 your .NET 3.5 application will work fine.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Chris,
  
  >>>>>>>> One of our 2.0 projects contains a typed dataset with 127 tables and since switching to VS2008 I have noticed that the IntelliSense has become extremely slow, if it works at all. I kid you not but the IDE freezes for about 3 minutes. In VS2005 the IntelliSense responds almost instantaneously with the exact same code. Also a rebuild of the solution (3 projects) takes less than 5 seconds in VS2005 whereas in VS2008 it takes over a minute. The exact same behaviour can also be reproduced on a colleague's machine.
  
  Can you send me an email (scottgu@microsoft.com) with more details about this? It sounds like there might be a configuration error causing this (since a delay that long probably means some type of timeout occuring). If you can send me an email with details we can get to the bottom of it.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Rory,
  
  >>>>>>> Is the workaround to fix multi-targeting support for AJAX 1.0 still required for the RTM version? In the workaround, you note that "this workaround will *not* be required for the VS 2008 RTM release" However, I still can't seem to get ajax 1.0 up and running with VS2008. I haven't tried the workaround yet, because I would prefer to get it working without workarounds if that's now possible.
  
  No workaround is required. If you are still having problems with this send me email (scottgu@microsoft.com) with the details and I can help get it working.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Darrel,
  
  >>>>>>>> I get the following error when dragging the Wizard control onto the design surface of a web page or web user control: "Error Creating Control - Wizard1: The type initializer for 'Microsoft.Web.Design.ExtenderInformationServiceProvider' threw and exception." Is this a know issue or is it just a problem with my installation?
  
  Can you send me an email (scottgu@microsoft.com) with more details about this? It sounds like there might be a configuration error causing this (since a delay that long probably means some type of timeout occuring). If you can send me an email with details we can get to the bottom of it.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Marcus,
  
  >>>>>>>> ".NET Framework 2.0 update not found. The win32manifest will not be embedded."
  
  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 A Moon,
  
  >>>>>> I am also getting the "Visual Studio has encountered an unexpected error." message when every I do just about anything in Studio. I didn't have the beta intalled, but I do have a few addins Visualsvn and Testdriven.net
  
  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
  

• In responses to a few question I had you responded with the following comments. Thanks for the reply. I do have some additional questions / comments to make now.
  
  1) .NET 3.5 installs a service pack for .NET 2.0. Those are the changes you are seeing in that directory. This service pack can also be installed separate from .NET 3.5 if you want.
  
  Where to you get the service pack for 2.0. Can you install .Net 3.5 without the .Net 2.0 SP or is 3.5 dependent on the SP being installed also?
  
  2) .NET 3.5 actually uses the .NET 2.0 CLR - which is why there isn't an extra dropdown in IIS to configure this. As long as you select .NET 2.0 your .NET 3.5 application will work fine.
  
  So basically .Net 3.5 just installs additional libraries to support the new VS.Net features (Linq, etc), similar to how .Net 3.0 just added libraries for (WCF, WPF, etc).
  
  Thanks for a great new IDE release and I cannot wait to start using all the new features. Look forward to the tutorials that you will be posting in the future. You team hit a home run again.
  

• Where is the Silverlight 1.0 project template in VS2008?
  

• GREAT and Informative review!!
  
  I am looking for the new features to convince me upgrading my vs2005 :P
  

• So what will be released on 27 February?
  

• Hi Scott
  
  Thanks for replying back and finding time out of your busy schedule. You are great and I don't know how you do it.
  
  Maybe I should have asked the question in a little different way (I did understand the var keyword but didn't post a good question). One thing I am expecting is that some people in teams like mine will switch over to VS2008 and some will stay on VS2005. How do I prevent people from using language improvements (such as var keyword) so that projects can be opened both in VS2005 and VS2008.
  As usual, many thanks in advance for replying.
  
  Rajesh
  Thursday, November 22, 2007 3:19 PM by ScottGu
  
  Hi Rajesh,
  
  >>>>>> Very newbee type question. I opened an existing C# project, VS2008 went through the mechanics of converting the project and presenting the interface. The project is targetted for .NEt 2.0 platform but I am still able to use var x=10; and compile just fine with no errors! Am I missing something? I thought this statement was not supposed to compile if target is .NET 2.0. Please help and I apologize if this has been answered already.
  
  The var keyword is actually a language keyword, and doesn't require .NET 3.5 in order to work. So if you are using multi-targetting, you can actually use this in VS 2008 with a .NET 2.0 project.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• 
  Price of MSDN Subscription. $3000
  Dollars spent developing VS 2008 bazillions.
  Having intellisense for toughies like "if" and "Dim". Priceless.
  

• One thing I noticed installing VS 2008 on a Windows Server 2003 box with VS 2005 (and no 2008 beta/CTP version).
  
  After I installed VS 2008, it reverted all of my configured IIS websites back to the 1.1 version of the framework from the version 2.0. Just something to be mindful of. It took me a second or two to catch on to what actually happened.
  

• Hi Scott,
  I would like to use C# 3.0 and LINQ features in our WinForms applications, but we simply cannot force our customers to upgrade Windows 2000 to Windows XP. I expect that Windows 2000 with .NET 2.0 SP1 will run my apps if I distribute some additional assemblies like System.Core.dll and System.Xml.Linq.dll.
  I wrote a test application using new C# and LINQ features. LINQ to objects works fine under Windows 2000, but LINQ to XML crashes with a ‘Method not found’ exception because System.Xml.Linq.dll tries to use a new (red or green) function not yet defined in System.Xml.dll. I am sure that it will work after SP1 is installed (because there is no reason why it should not).
  However, will Microsoft provide an official package for this Windows 2000 scenario, or are programmers who do this on their own, or is it even forbidden to redistribute a handpicked subset of 3.5 assemblies to Windows 2000 customers?
  

• Where can i post a Vs2008 rtm bug? i didn't find a link for this on msdn...
  I would have posted it in javascript topic but it is closed.
  
  Bug: Including a reference to jquery.js in your aspx page, will break the designer, that is it will not show any components of yours anymore. Removing jquery ;) will fix it. Isn't it cute? I think it is a problem with the parsing of this js that will incomodate the designer. I wonder if anyone at shiny Microsoft did ever test this break-through feature against real world examples and not tiny hello world js files.
  

• I've tested the final version a bit now, and it's a nice improvement over beta2 in many areas. But my main problem with beta2 hasn't been fixed: If you use the outlining feature on large xml files to keep it managable, VS2008 is useless, at least if you use attributes. Let's say you have a list of cd's in an xml file.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  </album
  
  
  
  
  </album
  
  
  
  
  </album
  
  In VS2005, using the outline feature, it would look like this
  
  {...}
  {...}
  {...}
  {...}
  
  But sadly, in VS2008, this has changed to:
  
  <album {...}
  <album {...}
  <album {...}
  <album {...}
  
  I'd love to hear the reasoning behind this move. At least they should have added an option to change the behaviour(If it's there, I haven't found it after looking closely). I guess I have to open all xml files in VS2005 until VS2009 comes along and hopefully changes this behaviour..
  
  Vidar
  

• "Where do I get my Key For this new update? I can't find my Key on mu MSDN Key list!" - If you are an MSDN subscriber it is hardcoded into the installer - just install it, no key required. Only obvious in hindsight (;P)
  
  However, I've hit a brick wall: the forms designer is broken on mine (VS Pro 2008 RTM on new Vista Ultimate 32-bit, no previous versions ever installed)...
  
  "The service Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.ISelectionContainer already exists in the service container. Parameter name: serviceType"
  
  There is an error with the toolbox being unable to load the resource manager as well.
  
  Unfortunately, Microsoft technical support want $300+ to investigate it, so we are not off to a good start. It's a bit early to judge how many other people are affected, but there are a few reports emerging so far, so it's not just me.
  

• Is there a new way to return values from SQL server (Such as the SCOPE_IDENTITY value of a newly created database record?) as my old hacks no longer work, even targeting .NET 2.0 under 2008. Works fine if I open the original project under VS2005.
  
  Here's an example in which I am expanding the partial class for a table adapter so that I can fetch the value returned from SQL (As far as I know there was no support for this under .NET 2.0):
  
  Snippets from two interworking files used to add a new blog message to the database as well as fetch the ID of the new record:
  
  ** This one writes the message, then makes a call to GetReturnValue to fetch the record ID:
  
  public int WriteMessage(int? topicNum, int? userNum, DateTime? msgTime, int? threadPre, string subject, string body, int? timesRead, DateTime? lastRead, int? grandparent)
  {
  taNewestMessages.WriteMessage(topicNum, userNum, msgTime, threadPre, subject, body, timesRead, lastRead, grandparent);
  int recordID = (int)taNewestMessages.GetReturnValue(4);
  
  return recordID;
  }
  
  ** This is this actual addition to the partial class to obtain the return value:
  
  public partial class NewestMessagesTableAdapter : System.ComponentModel.Component
  {
  // Tricky added code needed simply to get the value of "RETURN SCOPE_IDENTITY"
  public object GetReturnValue(int commandIndex)
  {
  return this.CommandCollection[commandIndex].Parameters[0].Value;
  }
  }
  
  Am hoping there has been an official way to do things like this that has been added, as the old hack doesn't work at all under 2008. (Although it did in a previous beta)
  
  Thanks for any info!
  

• Whenever I try to search for some text in a file with VS2008, as soon as I go to type in the text I am searching for, I get the dreaded "Microsoft Visual Studio has encountered a problem and needs to close.".
  
  I am running it on a dual-core AMD x64 machine using Windows XP x64 edition with SP2 installed.
  
  Any ideas? Thanks!
  

• Hi Scott.
  It seems that JavaScript intellisense does not work for us.
  When we have a prototype based class and we write the word "this." it gives us just the 6 generic methods of the object instead of listing all of the class methods. This ofcourse also makes the /// tag not to work.
  It happen also with the Client Behaviour template in VS so it's not because of problems in our JavaScript files.
  We installed VS08 RTM on a Vista Machine that had VS2005 installed on it, but no previews/beta versions of VS2008.
  
  When we open any JS file, it seems that for two seconds we get full colors for the file (the /// tag for example is colored in red and blue), but than everything goes to the normal black and green experience we had in VS2005.
  
  I also checked the registry hack that was posted for Beta2 and everything is seemd to be registered OK.
  
  Any way how to solve this?
  

• Awesome - when will .NET 3.5 be available on Windows Update?
  (WU is where I point people who don't have the required .NET version for my app)
  

• 1. 2008 will be required for Silverlight 1.1 development?
  2. Visual SourceSafe 2005 (VSS) and its license was part of Visual Studio Team System editions. Has this changed for 2008 because I could not find VSS on the 2008 Team Suite Trial DVD.
  

• Dear scott
  
  You mentioned that VS2008 will be available "soon" on MS Licensing.
  How exactly do you define "soon"? End of November? End of december? :)
  We have SA on TFS2005 and really want to use the new bits, as well as VS2008, of course :)
  Can the VS2008 Trial be converted to Full Product once it is available on MS Licensing?
  
  Thanks & Cheers
  Michel
  

• Scott
  
  Is it possible to use LINQ with VS2005. I know you were able to do this with the May CTP with the 3.0 Framework. I'm not able to get VS2008 yet, but would love to have the LINQ functionality. I wouldn't expect to get the intellisense and design-time error checking, but as long as it works I would be happy.
  
  Also, am I correct in saying that as long as the server has the 2.0 runtime it will be able to handle Framework 3.0 applications. In other words, is there any special setup on the server for 3.0 apps.
  
  Thanks
  

• Hi Bec,
  
  >>>>>>>> Where is the Silverlight project template in VS2008?
  
  You can download VS 2008 project template support for Silverlight 1.1 here: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/11/26/silverlight-1-1-tools-alpha-for-visual-studio-2008-available-for-download.aspx
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Amr,
  
  >>>>>>> So what will be released on 27 February?
  
  February 27th is the official "launch event" - which is when we hold events around the world. We typically "release" the product earlier so that we can make sure to have copied of it in stores prior to the launch events being held.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Rajesh,
  
  >>>>>>>> Maybe I should have asked the question in a little different way (I did understand the var keyword but didn't post a good question). One thing I am expecting is that some people in teams like mine will switch over to VS2008 and some will stay on VS2005. How do I prevent people from using language improvements (such as var keyword) so that projects can be opened both in VS2005 and VS2008.
  
  Unfortunately I don't know of an automatic way to prevent people from using the var keyword.
  
  Sorry!
  
  Scott
  

• Hi BKimball,
  
  >>>>>>>> Is there a new way to return values from SQL server (Such as the SCOPE_IDENTITY value of a newly created database record?) as my old hacks no longer work, even targeting .NET 2.0 under 2008. Works fine if I open the original project under VS2005.
  
  I'm not that familiar with this scenario. But if you send me email (scottgu@microsoft.com) I can try and find someone who can help.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi BKimball,
  
  >>>>>>> Whenever I try to search for some text in a file with VS2008, as soon as I go to type in the text I am searching for, I get the dreaded "Microsoft Visual Studio has encountered a problem and needs to close.".
  
  Can you send me an email with details about this error? I can then have someone figure out what is going wrong.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Shahar,
  
  >>>>>>> When we have a prototype based class and we write the word "this." it gives us just the 6 generic methods of the object instead of listing all of the class methods. This ofcourse also makes the /// tag not to work.
  
  If you can send me email (scottgu@microsoft.com) I can have someone help figure out what is going wrong here.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Michel,
  
  >>>>>>>> We have SA on TFS2005 and really want to use the new bits, as well as VS2008, of course :) Can the VS2008 Trial be converted to Full Product once it is available on MS Licensing?
  
  I just posted a few answers here: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/11/26/answers-to-a-few-vs-2008-trial-edition-tfs-2008-and-sourcesafe-questions.aspx
  
  I believe VS 2008 will show up on volume licensing in December.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Bill,
  
  >>>>>>> Is it possible to use LINQ with VS2005. I know you were able to do this with the May CTP with the 3.0 Framework. I'm not able to get VS2008 yet, but would love to have the LINQ functionality. I wouldn't expect to get the intellisense and design-time error checking, but as long as it works I would be happy.
  
  Unfortunately LINQ requires .NET 3.5 and VS 2008 - it won't work with VS 2005.
  
  Sorry!
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Peter,
  
  >>>>>>> When adding a new website the multi-targeting support dropdown is not available (as highlighted in weblogs.asp.net/.../vs-2008-multi-targeting-support.aspx). Is this just one of those things that makes Express less than the complete version? I can change the target platform after creating the project so no big deal really.
  
  For simplicity sake Visual Web Developer Express doesn't put multi-targeting directly in users faces. Instead, if you want to change the version you go into the project properties and modify it.
  
  >>>>>>>> When adding a new website the templates appear where I can select from ASP.NET Web Site, ASP.NET Web Service, Empty Web Site, and WCF Service. ASP.NET Web Application is NOT an option. Looking at the same picture as mentioned above in the multi-targeting blog (weblogs.asp.net/.../vs-2008-multi-targeting-support.aspx) I can see ASP.NET Web Application is an option. Is this another difference between Express and full?
  
  Class library and Web Application Project support isn't currently supported with Visual Web Developer Express. Those are, however, options that we'll be adding for SP1. We couldn't fit it into the final VS 2008 release though.
  
  >>>>>>> Is there a table somewhere which lists what features are available in full verse express editions of VS 2008?
  
  Unfortunately I don't think a complete feature list is available just yet. I'll link to one as soon as I find one!
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Paul Coddington,
  
  >>>>>>> However, I've hit a brick wall: the forms designer is broken on mine (VS Pro 2008 RTM on new Vista Ultimate 32-bit, no previous versions ever installed)... "The service Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.ISelectionContainer already exists in the service container. Parameter name: serviceType" There is an error with the toolbox being unable to load the resource manager as well. Unfortunately, Microsoft technical support want $300+ to investigate it, so we are not off to a good start. It's a bit early to judge how many other people are affected, but there are a few reports emerging so far, so it's not just me.
  
  This sounds like the cause of a setup error. Can you send me email (scottgu@microsoft.com) and I can have someone take a look and get it fixed?
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi,
  
  Is it possible to use Visual Studio 2005 in a .net 3.5 framework?
  
  Thanks/
  

• Scott, do you know if the Futures code was moved into the 3.5 framework? Specifically - did the ScriptManager get updated or do I still need to map the reference to the preview namespace in order to do drag-n-drop with webparts in FireFox, etc.
  
  Thanks for the good work! Looks great!
  

• Hello Scott,
  
  Great work on VS 2008! However, as somebody mentioned further up, F7 for code view is very hit and miss (for me at least). More miss than hit actually. Something small in the grand scheme of things, but thought I'd put it out there.
  
  Thanks!
  

• correction: my comment about futures and 3.5 was actually referring to the updated WebPartManager and whether or not it is updated in 3.5 to match the futures version in the preview namespace.
  

• Hi Scott,
  
  Have been using LINQ since May last year, really happy with it up to the release... tried to be an early adopter and got most of my code written before the release... can handle the dmbl files not opening and having to fix them manually, but why oh why has Add() been changed to InsertOnSumbit() (etc...). I've benn thinking around it and can't figure it, why the name change? Add() seemed natural and straight-forward. My table dragged to the designer end up as a collection which I could Add() to. If I wanted to persist the changes I SubmitChanges(), couldn't be simpler, no Insert() without submit method, so why? It's frustrating!
  
  Kev
  

• Scott,
  
  Will visual studio 2008 standard edition be available in a trial version, so I can use it before I the upgrade can be purchased?
  
  ...Stefan
  

• Hi Phil,
  
  >>>>>> Great work on VS 2008! However, as somebody mentioned further up, F7 for code view is very hit and miss (for me at least). More miss than hit actually. Something small in the grand scheme of things, but thought I'd put it out there.
  
  We've identified an issue that can block the idle thread from enabling this command sometimes. We are going to fix it in SP1, and are looking at releasing a public QFE download before then as well.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Kev,
  
  >>>>>>> Have been using LINQ since May last year, really happy with it up to the release... tried to be an early adopter and got most of my code written before the release... can handle the dmbl files not opening and having to fix them manually, but why oh why has Add() been changed to InsertOnSumbit() (etc...). I've benn thinking around it and can't figure it, why the name change? Add() seemed natural and straight-forward. My table dragged to the designer end up as a collection which I could Add() to. If I wanted to persist the changes I SubmitChanges(), couldn't be simpler, no Insert() without submit method, so why? It's frustrating!
  
  The goal behind the name change of Add->InsertOnSubmit was to make it clearer as to what calling Add meant. Several people were under the impression that the insert operation happened immediately when using the Add() method - and not that they'd be batched for when SubmitChanges() was called. The rename of the method hopefully makes the semantics clearer.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Eric,
  
  >>>>>>> I'll be looking forward to the Web Deployment projects getting refreshed for 2008 :)
  
  We'll have the VS 2008 Web Deployment Project available for download later this week.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  Scott
  

• 
  Hello,
  
  I installed VS 2008 Standard Edition Beta 2, and I did run the DisableAjaxPolicy.cmd file, many times. However, my VS 2005 Projects now have an error.
  
  Parser Error Message: Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
  
  
  I've uninstalled VS 2008 Standard Edition Beta 2, and un/re installed VS 2005 and the Ajax Extensions. How can I remove this dependency on v3.5.0.0 System.Web.Extensions in my VS 2005 projects?
  
  Thanks,
  Paul
  

• I've found the html editor to be very infuriating. Everytime my cursor is inside a tag (typing an attribute value) the ide seems to pause for 5 seconds every so often (more often than tolerable). I have no such issue in 2005. Its pretty unusable, to make matter worse while this pointless delay is occuring keystrokes are not buffered so anything i type while it's busy freakin out is never outputted...
  
  I thought it might have been the properties tool window I had open was slowing things down, as every time i click in a tag a lot of properties get appear in the window... closing it made no difference.
  
  Dunno what to do, it's so annoying! My inner screaming is about to become outer screaming :/
  

• Hi pschranz,
  
  >>>>>> I installed VS 2008 Standard Edition Beta 2, and I did run the DisableAjaxPolicy.cmd file, many times. However, my VS 2005 Projects now have an error.
  
  If you can send me an email (scottgu@microsoft.com) I can have someone help you with this.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi Sam,
  
  >>>>>>>> Everytime my cursor is inside a tag (typing an attribute value) the ide seems to pause for 5 seconds every so often (more often than tolerable).
  
  Can you send me an email (scottgu@microsoft.com) with more details about your project, source file, and machine configuration? I haven't heard of someone running into this before - so it sounds like something weird is going on (we have seen issues with mouse drivers and/or other applications that prevent idle loops from kicking in which can sometimes cause background tasks to be slow - which might somehow be related to your issue).
  
  If you send me email we'll get it resolved.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Hi.
  I would like to comment on your reference post about the ListView control ("The asp:ListView control, Part 1 - Building a Product Listing Page with Clean CSS UI").
  
  a. The new ListView control is very nice but why so much fuss about it? The Repeater control has the same purpose, it provides full control over the html/layout output and produces the same result in this specific example. Needless to say, the Repeater control exists since asp.net 2.0. Maybe a Repeater vs ListView post can enlighten us?
  
  b. I tried out the ListView sample step by step. I use Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition. The sample code won't work unless the item placeholder ID of the PlaceHolder control inside the LayoutTemplate is changed to "itemPlaceholder" instead of "itemContainer". This is the error I get otherwise:
  
  -- An item placeholder must be defined on ListView 'productsList'. Specify an item placeholder by setting a control's ID property yo "itemPlaceholder". The item placeholder control must also specify runat="server". --
  
  This is just a tiny fix and I mention it here just in case.
  
  Other than that, thank you for the excellent post.
  
  dpant
  
  
  

• Scott,
  
  I am getting about 3x slower build times using the RTM version of VS 2008 compared to Beta2. I was building my project in about 20 seconds and now it takes about 60. the DevEnv process is at 50% the entire time (dual core, so 100% of one of the cores I would assume).
  
  Any tips on how to track down the problem?
  

• Where's can I find a comparison of the editions (line item by line item), technical features, licensing, and costs?
  

• Scott:
  .net framework 3.5 can be run in windows 2000?
  

• Hi I was running the VWD 2008 Express version beta and everything worked as I needed it to..Apart from the registration process. I found on a forum it was an error with the program. (I downloaded it then burnt it to a disc) one of the two options. It turns out the way round it is to uninstall the whole package and do a download installation of the latest release. This has resolved the registration issue however every page I open now shows a "Page contains markup that is not valid when attached to master page" The only way round this is to click on the code make a slight change ie press delete then save the page.
  
  This allows me to continue working. However when I reopen the pages I see the same error again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Any ideas or is it just me????
  
  Thanks
  

• Any update on when the framework source code will be available?
  

• Will .NET Framework 3.5/VS2008/Express editions install in Windows 2000 Professional/Server editions?
  

• if i intall 2008 trail version and if i want to purchase retail version. then i have to uninstall this version first or microsoft will make way to make it retail.
  

• Hi Scott,
  
  Do you know of any specific advantages to developing Sharepoint 2007 apps (portals/internet sites etc) against VS 2008, apart from the general advantages that have been mentioned.
  
  Thanks,
  Anthony
  

• Can someone please point me in the direction of a resource that discusses WCF and JSON in the RTM bits please? Now that endpoints can't use UriTemplate with WebScriptEnablingBehavior my beta 2 code is broken.
  

• Hi, anyone using VS2008 (final) on windows Vista?
  I have a problem. The ASP.NET web site administration tool on any site created by VS2008, running on Vista, is not working as it should. I can configure users, roles, but when I try the option 'Select a single provider for all site management data' > AspNetSqlProvider > test, I receive the message:
  'Could not establish a connection to the database.
  If you have not yet created the SQL Server database, exit the Web Site Administration tool, use the aspnet_regsql command-line utility to create and configure the database, and then return to this tool to set the provider.'
  
  
  I tried the aspnet_regsql tool, tried to run VS as admin, and still the same.
  Any ideas?
  TIA
  

• Can't wait to get my hands on VS2008 and .NET 3.5. The organization I work for has told us developers that it's only a matter of time until we'll have VS2008. I love VS2005 and can't wait to try out all the new and cool stuff in VS2008. Way to go Microsoft! You guys have definitely been busy.
  

• I have a brand new Win XP machine with no .NET Framework installed yet. For multitargeting to work do I also need to install version 2.0/3.0 of the framework, or just .NET Framework 3.5 will suffice?
  

• Hey Scott,
  I have been playing with Visual Studio 2008 since about beta one, I have run into something new with the final release. When I am in design view, and typing text. The text takes forever to appear on the screen, one letter at a time, almost like my machine is getting hammered performance wise.
  
  I tried disabling all Mem.Res. apps and only running VS08, but I still see this. Can you loop me into support if I am not the only one experiencing this.
  
  BTW - Before I went to VS08 RTM, I did a complete rebuild on my machine to be sure no beta issues would exist along with the fact then I love nothing more than a clean dev environment.
  
  Let me know,
  Thanks.
  

• Hi Scott,
  
  Well done and I will be installing it some time soon but I have a quick question that I would really need some help and direction from you:
  
  Can I build a smart client for a asp.net web site with all this new 'stuff'? What I mean is, I want to build for example a web based questionnaire that has questions and answers and it's an adaptive type of questionnaire with a local sql2005 express db and then I want to deploy this web app to different 3rd party web sites across the world that are for example my customers, I want then from my web server release new versions of the web app and sql 2005 express db data, can I now do this as a smart client and vs2008 and .NET 3.5?
  
  Cheers
  George
  

• pentastic article. it's very easy to develope code using linq to sql. thanks scott for your patience.
  really appreciating.
  

• Hi Bret,
  
  >>>>>> I have been playing with Visual Studio 2008 since about beta one, I have run into something new with the final release. When I am in design view, and typing text. The text takes forever to appear on the screen, one letter at a time,
  
  Can you send me an email (scottgu@microsoft.com) about this? We have found a situation where this happens and are working on a patch. If you send me email we can get you early access to it to make sure it fixes your problem.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Why oh why did you depricate classic asp color coding and intellisence, that makes no sense what so ever. Classic asp is very much used out there. If IIS still serves up those files why can't you keep support for it in VS. Guess I'll stick with 2005 till someone comes up with a hack for this monster letdown.
  

• Hi Scott. I'm seeing the same error reported by Paul Coddington. I sent you an email, as you directed.
  

• Any possiblity of a comment on the fact that JavaScript Intellisense fails on external files that are referenced via a path that points to a virtual directory?
  (See my comment dated Nov 28)
  

• Hi Hal,
  
  >>>>>>> Any possiblity of a comment on the fact that JavaScript Intellisense fails on external files that are referenced via a path that points to a virtual directory?
  
  I'm not seeing this issue when the virtual directory paths point to files within the project. If you can send me email (scottgu@microsoft.com) I will put you in touch with the team to investigate more with you.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Scott
  

• Great Man!
  Amazing features .I mean heaven for us (4 Developers)
  Thanks alot.
  

• hi.... I checked it out.... its really great with some small hookups.... the property names have again changed for eg. button1.text is changed to button1.content
  
  Need to revisit them .... :(
  
  But then with all the new features that its packed with perhaps the pain is worth taking........
  

• Does .NET framework 3.5 supports xslt2.0?
  

• Hi scot,
  
  I still not understand this behaviour of VS2005 Windows Forms Designer. It
  is a normal practice that we create a base form and then master form and
  then final form. I mean let say I create BaseForm.cs which is my base form
  (just derived form System.Windows.Forms) then I create MasterForm in wich I
  put toolbar and datagridview control (with public modifiers). And then I
  finally create EmployForm.cs in which I add few more things and fetch
  dataset and show it in datagridview control. These works absolutely fine in
  VS2003 at design time and runtime but with VS2005 I cannot do this at design
  time (I CAN CHANGE THINGS PROGRAMATICALLY). When I click on dataviewgrid control in final form (employeform.cs),
  all properties turn in gray and read-only. WHY WHY WHY????
  
  Same thing If I want to add few more buttons in my menuStrip control, I
  cannot do it in final form which is derived from my master form.
  
  I reported this problem at Beta2 stage and Microsoft said that it requres
  extensive engineering efforts and cannot be accomplished in this release
  (And I thought Microsoft will solve in the final release but still not
  there)
  
  I checked with few other vendors (like DevExpress), and they have now
  released their latest components so that I can use them in derived forms (I
  am using XtraGrid now in my derived forms and it just working fine at design
  time!).
  
  Is there any work around to solve the problem??? I read few post with similar problem but NONE of them telling me how I can fix/work around?
  
  IS THIS PROBLEM HAVE SOLVE THIS PRODUCT vs.net 2008
  

• Hi Scott,
  
  is the fix for the 'View Source' problem available and if so, where can I download it?
  This issue is very annoying...
  
  Thanks,
  Felix
  

• Any idea when the Nov 2007 DevConnections conference attendees will be receiving their copy of VS 2008?
  
  Thanks,
  Phillip
  

• I've started using a 90-day trial of VS 2008 and converting solution and project files. This is a very labor intensive process when reusing updated source code from 3rd party repositories such as CodePlex. For example, I downloaded the updated ObjectBuilder and want/need to update Enterprise Library, Web Client Software Factory, and Repository Factory in addition to my own projects to use this new build, then rebuild them all in sequence. The problem is that all of these projects are in VS 2005 format.
  
  Is there a command line tool or switch that I could use to automate the project and solution conversion within a batch file for a one step rebuild of all the libraries?
  

• Is threre any link that says what are the missing control in framwork 3.5 but present in framwork 2.0. And what are substitution of those controls
  

• My questions relates to: Improvements on Website Publishing over Visual studio 2005
  When you add page to an existing Project to .Net 2.0 Visual Studio 2005, you would normally delete all fils in the folders and do new publish of everything.
  Does Visual Studio 2008 - allow you do only copy the new pages without deleting the Site and re-publishing it?
  

• Hi,
  My question is on Biztalk server 2006 R2......
  Is VS 2008 with .Net Framework 3.5 is compatable with Biztalk server 2006 R2 and also I want to know the new features involved in implementing WCF.
  
  Thanks & Regards
  Mallesh B
  

• As we approach the 2 month anniversary of going golden, when do you think we Vegas DevConnections attendees will get our copies? I'm excited to try it out and a big reason for attending the conference was to get a free copy, so what's up?