Visual Studio (2008) - FAQs

A: The UI for VS2008 did not really change a lot so you should generally be able to find all the same features in both versions.  Some features were removed or modified.  If you cannot find a feature that existed in previous versions then try looking for the command.

In VS2008, as with VS2005, all commands supported by the IDE are available via the Tools\Options -> Keyboard menu.  This option will show you all the commands available to you and any shortcut keys they might be using.  You can use this list to search for the command.  Determining the actual command name is a little hard so you should try a simplified name.  For example if you wanted to be able to navigate between methods of a class you should search for NextMethod or Next or even Move.  The commands are generally organized by category so you'll find edit commmands called Edit.XYZ.

Once you have found the command you can either assign a shortcut key to it or add a button to a toolbar or menu to represent the command.  To create a button or menu item you'll need to exit out of the options window, right-click the toolbar area and select Customize.  From there you should be able to find the command.

A: When you select a project in Solution Explorer you might have noticed the toolbar at the top of the window changing.  One of the option (in most projects) is Show All Files.  This option shows all files and folders under the project folder whether they are in the project or not.  Files/folders not in the project are shown grayed out.  If you right-click the files/folders (multiple selection is supported) you can right-click and select Include in Project to automatically add them to the project.  If you add a folder it will automatically include any children in the folder.  This is a great way to add a lot of items.

A: The Layout menu has been removed.  It mostly only provided two pieces of functionality.  The first one was to create and insert tables for forcing certain page layouts.  The second was for controlling absolute and relative positioning if controls.

Table layouts have been moved to the Table menu in VS2008.  Unlike VS2005 this menu only allows you to specify custom table layouts.  The predefined layouts have been removed because, in general, using tables to control page layouts is frowned upon as it is not cross-browser compliant.  Instead you should be using CSS even though it might be harder to get use to.

As for CSS positioning this has been removed altogether because all it really did was act as a shortcut to the Tools\Options -> HTML Designer page.  You'll see that CSS settings have changed quite a bit in VS2008.  In VS2005 there was a combo box to allow you to set the various positiong options.  In VS2008 you can only choose whether to use absolute or relative.  However VS2008 also tends to prefer to generate CSS attributes for most HTML changes.  Therefore you aren't really losing any functionality as much as it is being made more consistent.  You can still set a control to absolute positioning and then drop it where you want.  As you move the control the underlying CSS attributes will be updated.

A: This should only happen the first time you mouse over the Toolbox after starting VS.  VS is populating the window with the controls that are defined within your solution in addition to the pre-defined controls.  This can be a slow process.  To speed it up go to Tools\Options -> Windows Form Designer\General and set AutoToolboxPopulate to false.  This will tell VS not to scan your solution looking for controls to add to the toolbox.

A: In general this is a good thing.  If it really bothers you go to Tools\Options -> Source Control\Environment and set the On Edit behavior to Do Nothing.  This could introduce an inconsistency in your local version vs. the version in source control so use carefully.

A: By default when you migrate an app from VS2005 to VS2008 it will continue to use the v2.0 runtime.  To switch to a different version go to the project properties page.  Under the Application tab is the Target Framework option where you can specify the version to use.  Changing the framework version will require that the project be unloaded and reloaded.  Additionally VS will not modify assembly references so some of your assemblies may no longer be valid.

A: In the New Project dialog you'll see a little combo in the upper right corner where you can select the framework version to use.  Set it to v2.0 or whatever framework you wish to use.

A: Yes there is.  Under Tools\Options -> Projects and Solutions there is an option called Save new projects when created.  Unchecking this option will allow you to create new projects without saving them.  It will still end up in your temporary projects folder but it will be automatically deleted when you close the project unless you chose to save it.  Furthermore it will not be added to the MRU project list.

There are some restrictions to this option.  Firstly not all project types support it.  C++ does not while C# and VB do.  Secondly, you cannot create multiple projects in a single solution without saving it first.  You also cannot do some project changes without first saving the project.  Avoid using the Save All button as this will prompt you to save the project.  However you can add files and compile and debug without saving.

A: While you can debug into the framework there are some caveats.  Firstly you need a hotfix to the RTM version to allow it to work.  Secondly you have to set up a source server (which you might already have).  Finally there are some restrictions.  The biggest restriction is that not all assemblies are available yet.  The second restriction is that the code is still compiled as release mode so much of the debugger will not work quite right.  For example it will be hard to look at local variable values as they are likely to have been optimized away.  It is best to use this feature only when you absolutely must walk through the code to figure out what is going on.  In general using Reflector or equivalent tool wiill work better in my experience.  Refer to this article on how to set up VS2008 to support debugging the framework.

A: Unfortunately the 100 limit is currently hard coded in the source and cannot be changed. The only alternative is to use the Watch window or equivalent to view all the members.