[2008] Quick access thingys missing in VS2008 Standard

[chris128]

Sorry for the naff thread title but I have no idea what these things are called... Basically, I've been using VB 2008 Express for ages but recently installed Visual Studio 2008 Standard edition. In the Express edition I could click on controls (lets use a TreeView for example) and at the top right of the control a small black arrow appears, you click this arrow and it shows you common properties or links (using the Treeview it shows "Edit Nodes" and ImageList).
However, in Visual Studio 2008 Standard these seem to be missing from all controls!
I've tried creating new projects to see if it was just an issue with existing projects that were actually created originally in Express edition but no its still exactly the same in both old and new projects.

I did get an error at the end of the VS 2008 Standard install that stated that it couldnt find something to do with WPF - I assume this will of been because I had already installed the .NET 3.5 SP1 BETA a while ago but I figured as I wasnt going to be using WPF it didnt matter... perhaps this has something to do with it though?
I hope there's an easier way than uninstalling everything .NET and then reinstalling VS 2008 Standard, anyone got any suggestions?

Thanks
Chris

[chris128]

anyone?

[jmcilhinney]

Those thingies are called smart tags and they certainly should be there in VS 2008.

One of the instructions they ALWAYS give when installing Frameworks and Framework SPs is to remove any betas you may already have installed. That may not be causing this issue (or it may) but it's likely to cause some issues. I would suggest uninstalling anything .NET and then installing everything again in the appropriate order with no betas.

[chris128]

Yeah I totally forgot I had the BETA installed until I got that WPF error - I'll try reinstalling everything tonight and see if it sorts it out then.
I guess its not all bad... at least now I know the proper name for smart tags

[RobDog888]

Yet another reason why not to install beta software on your system.

[chris128]

but if everyone took that approach then products wouldn't be tested as well and half of the bugs that get reported during BETA wouldnt be fixed for the release version

[kleinma]

I know there is an option in the "Windows Forms Designer" node of the options screen, that says "Automatically Open Smart Tags" with a value of true or false.

The odd thing is, the MSDN Help for this setting makes it sound like it does something different:

Determines whether controls and components will display smart tags. Not all controls and components support smart tags.

However I must say, I see no difference if its true or false in how my designer acts, and my smart tags always are accessible, however they never "auto open" or anything like that..