New SKUs and a Release Date for Visual Studio 2010

With recent (or near future) releases of Windows 7, Windows 2008 R2, SharePoint 2010, and Silverlight, it is no surprise that a new release of Visual Studio is coming soon. According to The Register, Visual Studio 2010 will release on March 22, 2010. They reported that Beta 2 will be available to MSDN subscribers today (it was not there at the time I wrote this), and that it would be publicly available on October 21st to everyone else.

Also reported was the reduction in the number of different editions of Visual Studio 2010. The plan is to reduce the number to four: Visual Studio 2010 Professional Edition without MSDN, Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN, Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDN, and Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate.



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:thumb:

Awesome. I haven't been this excited for a new Visual Studio since the first release of .NET. :D I am in love with the new IDE.

But I wonder about the reduction of versions. Which version(s) will include Team Foundation support?

Edit: Beta 2 is up now. It looks like the are breaking the Team stuff out into a seperate product. Not sure what the deal with that is going to be.

Install attempt 1:

Failed when installing the Silverlight 3 SDK saying it is already installed. Ran the IDE but I cannot view code for anything. Trying a repair with Silverlight un-installed as perhaps there was something that is in the list of stuff to install after that that is causing the issue

Attempt 2:

Same issue. Anyone else with the same problem? It says Invalid Pointer when you try to View code.

Actually VS 2010 RTM is scheduled to "launch" on 03.22.2010 which is different then a "Release". So one could determine that it will RTM sometime before the 22nd. :)

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Originally Posted by The Register Article

Also, Microsoft will announce Visual Studio 2010 will officially launch on March 22, 2010.

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Microsoft Press Release

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Originally Posted by Cander

Install attempt 1:

Failed when installing the Silverlight 3 SDK saying it is already installed. Ran the IDE but I cannot view code for anything. Trying a repair with Silverlight un-installed as perhaps there was something that is in the list of stuff to install after that that is causing the issue

Attempt 2:

Same issue. Anyone else with the same problem? It says Invalid Pointer when you try to View code.

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What OS and bit version you running Cander?

Hey Cander, this may help to debug any setup issues.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

Wow that is pretty soon, I thought it would be like july/august sort of time next year. I also wasnt expecting BETA 2 anytime soon (very eager to try that as they said they would fix the WPF blurry text issue for this BETA!) so I'm happy :)

So no more Standard Edition then? I guess that is good in a way because it sucks as a lot of the things I want to do seem to only be supported in Professional Edition but at the same time the reason I have got Standard Edition is because it was cheaper - I wonder if Professional Edition will be a bit cheaper because it is now the lowest entry?

It better be, I have already forgone 1 birthday and one Christmas so i can get it!

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Originally Posted by RobDog888

Hey Cander, this may help to debug any setup issues.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

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Thanks. Will try that tonight. To answer your other question. I am on Windows 7 64.

I tried using the /log switch when running devenv but that didn't do anything. No log gets created.

I also just read someone on MSDN with the same issue and it wsa suggested to reset all settings. Since it imported old customized editor color settings, it would make sense that that may be the problem. Will try it when I get home.

Oh also found out last night that the Silverlight error "may" be causes by a localization version if you are not running the English version. So I dont want to assume but you are running the English version of 7?

Got it working. I went to Tools > Import Export Settings then Reset all settings. Works fine now. woot

For some reason, I can't get into MSDN yesterday, and it still isn't working today.

I will have to wait until later on today, when it is freely available :(

Yeah I wonder when it will actually be available to us mere mortals. It says October 21st but its October 21st now and it still isnt available - I guess we have to wait for those lazy Americans to get out of bed :)

Hey,

Yeah, that is what I was thinking as well. Only a couple hours though :)

Gary

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chris128

Yeah I wonder when it will actually be available to us mere mortals. It says October 21st but its October 21st now and it still isnt available - I guess we have to wait for those lazy Americans to get out of bed :)

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It is those Seattleites. They are always last to get up. Darn plaid wearing grungy hippies. :lol:

You can download it now from: http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudi...0/default.mspx :)

Sweet!! Thanks for the link!!

Thanks, Chris!

Is it recommended that you remove the older version of 2010 BETA before installing this one?

Hey,

I would have thought you would have had to uninstall BETA 1 first. That is what I was planning on doing anyway.

Here is some more information about the second BETA:

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archi...-0-beta-2.aspx

Gary

Thanks, Gary! :)

I'm going to uninstall the previous BETA now. I hope the newer version is more stable because BETA 1 seemed to hang quite a bit for me (mainly on start-up and when creating new projects).

Oh, I just found a comment posted by the article's author Scott:

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You'll want to completely uninstall VS 2010 Beta1 before installing Beta2.

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Hey,

Really? Which OS are you using? I haven't had had any problems at all. I am using Windows 7.

Gary

I'm using Vista Ultimate 64 bit. Perhaps it was interfering with VS2008 or something since that is the only reason I can think of.

Well I've got it installed and running now - so far not too impressed as images in WPF are still blurry and they seem to have removed the one property that helped make them less blurry! (RenderingOptions.BitmapScalingMode)

Also, when in the WPF XAML editor window, the little icons in intellisense for properties, namespaces etc get more blurry the further down the list they are. The ones at the top of the intellisense window/list are crystal clear but at the bottom they are blurry :S

I like the new start page though and it does seem to be a little bit faster than the previous BETA (not loads though)

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Well I've got it installed and running now - so far not too impressed as images in WPF are still blurry and they seem to have removed the one property that helped make them less blurry! (RenderingOptions.BitmapScalingMode)

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Well supposedly they have fixed the blurry fonts in this beta. Maybe next beta or RC will fix that

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Originally Posted by BadgerBadger

I'm using Vista Ultimate 64 bit. Perhaps it was interfering with VS2008 or something since that is the only reason I can think of.

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Hey,

I also have Visual Studio installed, and for that matter Visual Studio 2005, so don't think that this was the problem.

Gary

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Originally Posted by gep13

Hey,

I also have Visual Studio installed, and for that matter Visual Studio 2005, so don't think that this was the problem.

Gary

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OK, thanks, Gary.
It has got me stumped but hopefully this new BETA won't have similar issues with my system. It just finished installing; time to restart!

Good luck, and enjoy!! I am still downloading :)

Ah yes, I meant mine had just finished downloading! That damn "web" installer deceived me. :)
It's currently installing now!

For future reference for anyone who may get the same problem I had that I now fixed, here were the 'steps' I went through that led to the problem.

Had Visual Studio 2008 Team System installed. Made alot of custom changes to the editor colors.
Installed 2010 beta 1. On first run it imported those changes.
Un-installed beta 1.
Installed beta 2. Imported previous settings. Not sure though if it was trying to import from 2008 or if was trying ot pull from the settings folder for beta 1 that may have not been removed during uninstall.

So if anyone went through this same pattern and gets the same problem with not being about to view source code, then the reset settings fix I mentioned earlier is for you.

Well the install went fine except for one error about not being able to install Silverlight 3/SDK (can't remember which one) after completion, but that didn't bother me that much since I never use Silverlight. Although oddly enough I can still create Silverlight 3 projects in the IDE.

Overall, it is running much smoother than the previous version of the BETA on my system and all is well!

OMG. I can add a reference without waiting 2 minutes for the reference lists to open!!!! :)

About time they fixed that.

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Originally Posted by Cander

OMG. I can add a reference without waiting 2 minutes for the reference lists to open!!!! :)

About time they fixed that.

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Woot Woot!! That has always been annoying!!

Gary

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cander

OMG. I can add a reference without waiting 2 minutes for the reference lists to open!!!! :)

About time they fixed that.

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I was too scared to try it until now so thanks for the confirmation! :)

I wonder if they have made "Choose Items" on the toolbox take less time as well then, that takes an age for me even on a quad core machine with 8 GB of memory!

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Originally Posted by chris128

I wonder if they have made "Choose Items" on the toolbox take less time as well then, that takes an age for me even on a quad core machine with 8 GB of memory!

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I forgot to try that last night. I hope that is faster now too. I assume it may well be faster. :thumb:

My first try caused it to stop responding for a while but it has seemed to become quicker since then.

Just tried it, still takes over 30 seconds the first time but then after that its ok.

Just tried it as well. The fonts in menus (like the window when you create a new project for example) seem to be fixed now (not blurry anymore), but the font in the code editor is still not as clear as it used to be. I hope they will improve that further.

Then, they seem to have added all kinds of code editor 'visual enhancements' which do not just slow the thing down, but are also completely pointless in my opinion. For example, when trying to select a single character in some name to remove it (I had a typo and typed a char too many), the whole word is suddenly given a backcolor similar to the selection color, which made me think I was selecting the whole word instead of just the single character. Bit annoying. I don't see the reason for that word highlight at all... What's the point? Are spaces not good enough separators anymore?

All in all I feel the code editor is still too laggy / slow, especially compared to VS2005/8 where the code editor is always lightning fast. Other editors always seem to have trouble with the code editor, it's always slow and buggy, but in VS2005/8 it was perfect. Now, it seems it's also slow and buggy... Syntax highlighting is still sometimes lost (when using auto generated code for example in code snippets or when you let it auto-complete a method override).

The one thing I am annoyed about is: why? What was wrong with the old editor? Can't they just use that? Why did they have to make it in WPF? I can understand that they want to make menus and stuff in WPF as "that's the future", but it just doesn't work properly for the code editor, and it also brings to advantages as far as I can see. It still looks about the same as the old editor except for the small 'visual enhancements' that are annoying anyway...

That word highlighting you mention is actually quite handy - lets say you click a variable amongst a massive block of code, the highlighting lets you easily see everywhere within that block of code that the variable is used. Also if you click the opening block of say a method, property, or If statement etc it will highlight the closing part of that block which I find quite useful in large nested If statements.

This is definitely a nice feature!! I had to install CodeRush Express previously in order to get similar functionality, so I am looking forward to having it built in.

Gary

I installed it already, it's pretty good. It's kinda slow though, and the theme is quite ugly. I wouldn't really recommend this for full time programming, use VS 2008 instead.

lol so what did you think was "pretty good" about it if you dont like the look of it and you wouldnt recommend it for anyone to actually use to do programming?

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Originally Posted by GizSho

I installed it already, it's pretty good. It's kinda slow though, and the theme is quite ugly. I wouldn't really recommend this for full time programming, use VS 2008 instead.

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Really?!?

That is quite a serious recommendation!!

I actually like the new style of Visual Studio 2010, and i would happily recommend it to anyone.

What exactly did you not like?

Gary

I like the style of it but I'm with everyone else that it is a bit too slow still...

From clicking the icon on my start menu for VS 2008 to actually being able to type some code in to a winforms project takes approx 7 seconds. In VS 2010 it takes 13 seconds.
(and I ran both of them a couple of times before doing that test so that they both had a 'warm' startup). Of course 13 seconds isnt the end of the world but as its nearly double the time it took in VS 2008 its a bit of a pain. I have a fairly fast PC as well, I can imagine it being pretty sluggish on the average machine.

Hey,

Out of interest Chris, what are the specs of your PC?

I am running Windows 7, with 8GB of RAM with a Dual Core Intel CPU, and I can't say that I have noticed that it is "sluggish".

Gary

Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit
8 GB RAM
Quad Core 2.4Ghz Intel CPU
10,000 RPM hard drive

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I am running Windows 7

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think that might be a big factor in the difference in speed between our machines :)

Anyway I didnt mean it was actually slow on my PC, I just meant it was noticeably slower than 2008

Ah, I see what you mean.

Yeah, Windows 7 Rocks!!! Still waiting on the full version arriving from Amazon though, very annoyed!!

Gary

Oh right, it says on their website that they still have it in stock so I assumed they were on top of the orders and would have despatched them all already. I am considering ordering it (see http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=589048) but not quite sure... I also dont get why the full retail version of 7 Ultimate costs about £40 less than the upgrade version, I thought upgrades were usually cheaper.

Hey,

Don't even get me started!!

Pre-Ordered an Ultimate copy from Amazon back in August, but with the Postal strikes, Amazon contracted DHL to do their deliveries, but seems like DHL took on too many deliveries, and weren't able to get it delivered on Thursday. When it didn't arrive on Friday I phoned up to ask if I could pick it up from the depot today, but was told that I wasn't allowed to, have to wait until Monday to get it.

Less than impressed.

Yeah, that confused me as well, not sure why that is.

Have you played with the RC at all? I have had it installed for a few months now, and really like it!!!

Gary

Is it worth the trouble of upgrading from Vista Ultimate 64bit to a full version of Windows 7?
Will there be any compatibility issues with applications or games?

As for the 2010 BETA, it is slightly slower compared to 2008 for me, too.
I'm on the same OS as Chris with 3GB of RAM and an i7 920 @ 2.6GHz CPU.

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Will there be any compatibility issues with applications or games?

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I dont think so because its still pretty much the same OS as Vista just with a few tweaks. They have said all along that they want anything that works with Vista to work with 7, you are a lot more likely to have problems when going from XP to 7.

Ah, OK then. When I get some spare money I might end up upgrading to 7.

All my files, applications, games etcetera will be transferred over, right?
I don't have much experience installing an OS.

Oh and this thread might have gotten a bit off topic. :p

lol yeah this is getting a bit off topic, but yeah if you do an in place upgrade then your files will remain as they were. Start a new thread on here before you do it and people can explain to you exactly what to do :)

Alright, will do!
I will probably be making a thread before I buy it asking for help finding the best deal. :D

Hey,

BadgerBadger, re-installing an OS is nothing to be worried about, 9 times out of 10, it goes off without any problems. In all honesty though, I would be very tempted to suggest that you think about doing a fresh install, rather than an upgrade. This has always been my preference. It does mean that you have to backup all your files though.

Gary

OK, thanks, Gary.
I will definitely upgrade when I get some spare money, but I don't think I can handle losing all my data and backing it up won't really be an option, so I think I will try to avoid a fresh install as much as possible. :)

One can only wonder if deep-discounted Vista packages will become available for a while.

Got my answer about Team Edition

http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudi...0/default.mspx

All versions come with Team Explorer now.

Hey Chris, remember that 7 completely outperforms Vista so definately something to consider when you and Gary are comparing startup times for VS

My experience with performance is that it loads really fast and runs slick as snot. :p

My specs:
Windows 7 64bit
https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/M...spx?ID=7366509

I would imagine having a better video card really helps since the UI uses WPF which is hardware accelerated.