Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions Service Pack 1 Beta release notes and a list of fixed issues

Supported languages

• English (United States)

• Japanese

Supported operating systems

• Windows Server 2008

• Windows Vista

• Windows XP SP2

• Windows Server 2003 SP2 or a later version of Windows Server 2003

Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 Beta does not install immediately after a Visual Studio compilation

You cannot install Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 Beta until the debugger service closes.

To resolve this issue, take one of the following actions:

• Finish compilations that are in progress, and then wait for the debugger service to close. This may take ten minutes.

• Use Task Manager to end all instances of the Mspdbsrv.exe service.

Mixed mode

For multiple editions of Visual Studio 2008, Microsoft supports only those scenarios in which all editions are at the same service pack level. If there are multiple language versions or multiple editions of Visual Studio 2008 on a computer, all must be at the same level to be supported by Microsoft. For example, all versions or editions must be at the release level or at the SP1 level.

How to remove Visual Studio 2008 Express SP1 Beta

Visual Studio 2008 Express SP1 Beta is a complete update of the earlier version of Visual Studio 2008 Express editions. To remove each language edition of Visual Studio 2008 Express SP1 Beta, follow these steps, depending on the version of Windows that you have installed.

How to restore to the release version of Visual Studio 2008

After you completely remove all Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta editions, you must repair the remaining Visual Studio 2008 release version to restore all the features that were replaced during the Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta update. The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Beta remains on the operating system after you uninstall Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta. We recommend that you do not remove the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Beta from the operating system. The .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Beta is backward compatible with earlier versions of Visual Studio.

To restore Visual Studio 2008 to a supported release-version state, follow these steps:

1. If any Visual Studio 2008 Express SP1 Beta editions were installed, remove them by following the steps in the "How to remove Visual Studio 2008 Express SP1 Beta" subsection of the "Removal issues for all platforms" section.

2. If Visual Studio 2008 Express SP1 Beta was applied to any Visual Studio 2008 non-Express editions, remove the Visual Studio 2008 Express SP1 Beta updates by following the steps in the "How to remove Visual Studio 2008 Express SP1 Beta" subsection of the "Removal issues for all platforms" section..

3. Follow these steps, depending on the version of Windows that you have installed.
   
   Windows Vista

   1. In Control Panel, open the Programs and Features item.

   2. Click each instance of Visual Studio 2008, and then click Uninstall/Change to start Visual Studio Setup in maintenance mode.

   Versions of Windows earlier than Windows Vista

   1. In Control Panel, open the Add or Remove Programs item.

   2. Click each instance of Visual Studio 2008, and then click Change/Remove to start Visual Studio Setup in maintenance mode.

4. Click to select the Repair/Reinstall option on the maintenance mode window, and then let Setup repair the existing features.

5. Repeat step 3.

6. Click to select the Add or Remove Features option on the maintenance mode window.

7. Take one of the following actions:

   • Click to select one of the feature check boxes in the product’s feature tree, and then click to clear the check box.

   • Add or remove any feature components that you want to modify.

8. Click Update, and then let Setup update the Visual Studio components that are installed on the operating system.

9. Reinstall any edition of Visual Studio 2008 Express.

The Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 Beta installation fails if the .NET Framework 3.5 Client Beta 1 is already installed on the computer

To work around this issue, follow these steps:

1. Uninstall the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Client Beta 1.

2. Uninstall the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Client Beta 1.

3. Uninstall the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Client Beta 1.

4. Reinstall Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 Beta.

Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 Beta is incompatible with SQL Server 2008 Express Edition, and you cannot connect to SQL Server databases after you upgrade to SQL Server 2008 Express Edition

When you upgrade to SQL Server 2008 Express Edition, the named instance of the database is overwritten, and any Visual Studio 2008 Express editions can no longer target the default instance in SQL Server 2008 Express Edition.

Sixty-four-bit debugger components are not updated on computers that have the release version of Visual Studio 2008 Express editions installed

The Remote Debugger Light component lets you debug 64-bit applications in Visual Studio 2008 Express editions. If a release version of a Visual Studio 2008 Express edition is already installed on the computer, the installation of Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 Beta does not upgrade the Remote Debugger Light component to the SP1 level. Therefore, some new features in Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 Beta do not function correctly or are not available when you debug 64-bit applications. Additionally, if you repair the Visual Studio 2008 Express editions, the repair procedure fails at the step at which the repair procedure tries to repair the Remote Debugger Light component. Then, additional repairs of components are canceled.

To work around this issue, uninstall the Remote Debugger Light component in a 64-bit of version of Windows, and then install Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 Beta.

The .NET Framework Setup program may fail in Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 Beta

The .NET Framework Setup program fails if one of the following conditions is true:

• On a Windows XP-based computer, you have no version of the .NET Framework installed.

• On a Windows XP-based computer, you have only the .NET Framework 2.0 or an earlier version of the .NET Framework installed.

The Setup program fails because an IIS metabase lock is held for longer than expected.

To work around this issue, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click run, type eventvwr.msc, and then click OK.

2. Click to select Application.

3. Check whether the following error exists in the event log:

   Type: Error
   
   Source: System.ServiceModel.Install 3.0.0.0 Description: System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80070094): The path specified cannot be used at this time.

4. If this error exists, reinstall Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 Beta.

Entity Designer may display the safe mode watermark when you rename the entity data model namespace

If the entity data model contains a type that has the same name as the last part of the storage model, Entity Designer displays the safe mode watermark when you rename the conceptual model namespace. This makes the .edmx file editable only in the XML editor.

For example, if the entity data model contains a type that is named Store and the storage model namespace is AdventureWorksModel.Store, this issue will occur if you rename the entity data model namespace.

To work around this issue, follow these steps:

1. In the Visual Studio 2008 IDE, double-click the related error in the error list. The error number is 34. For example:

   Error 34: Unknown namespace or alias (AdventureWorksModel)

2. In the XML editor, rename the namespace to the new namespace name, and then save and close the model.

Entity Designer displays the safe mode watermark when the parameters of a stored procedure that is mapped to a function import are modified

If the parameters of a stored procedure that has a corresponding function import are added, removed, or changed, Entity Designer displays the safe mode watermark. This causes the .edmx file to be editable only in the XML editor.

To work around this issue, follow these steps:

1. Open the .edmx file in the XML editor.

2. Delete the FunctionImport element and the corresponding FunctionImportMapping element. (These elements exist at two positions in the .edmx file.) If you do not want to delete the elements, you can change the parameters of the Function Import element to correctly map the stored procedure that will be displayed as a function element in the store schema definition language (SSDL) section.

You may receive a "System.OutofMemoryException" exception on a model that has several hundred tables

There is no known workaround for this issue now.

Undo operations are slow for a model that contains more than 100 types

There is no known workaround for this issue now.

Entity data models that have the same SSDL schema names cause errors in Web site projects

If a Web site project contains entity data models that have the same SSDL schema names, an error that indicates that the project contains conflicting storage namespace names occurs at run time.

To work around this issue, change the metadata part of the connection string in the Web.config file as follows.

The original version is as follows:

res://*

The changed version should be as follows:

res://*/virtual_root.path-to-file.file_name.csdl|res://*/virtual_root.path-to-file.file_name.ssdl|res://*/virtual_root.path-to-file.file_name.msl

For example, if you have a model in the App_Code folder (App_Code\Model.edmx) in WebSite1, the connection string should resemble the following:

res://*/WebSite1.App_Code.Model.csdl| res://*/WebSite1.App_Code.Model.ssdl| res://*/WebSite1.App_Code.Model.msl

Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 Beta may not upgrade SQL Server to the February 2008 Community Technology Preview (CTP) release of SQL Server 2008

After you install Visual Studio 2008 Express SP1 Beta on a computer that has an earlier service pack level of SQL Server 2008 installed, SQL Server 2008 is not upgraded to the February 2008 CTP release (CTP6). SQL Server 2008 CTP6 supports upgrades only from the following earlier versions:

• SQL Server 2005 SP2 or a later service pack

• SQL Server 2000 SP4 or a later service pack

To work around this issue, follow these steps:

1. Uninstall earlier versions of SQL Server.

2. Run Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 Beta Setup in maintenance mode.

3. Click to select the Add Optional Components option, and then select SQL Server 2008 Express Edition.

4. Click Next to continue the setup.

References to SQL Server 2008 and to SQL Server 2005 appear on the computer after you install Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 Beta

After you install Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 Beta on a computer that has SQL Server 2005 Express Edition installed, references to the 2008 and 2005 versions of SQL Server appear on the Start menu and in the Add or Remove Programs item in Control Panel. In this case, SQL Server 2005 Express Edition has been upgraded to SQL Server 2008 Express Edition. Any additional references that represent SQL Server 2005 Express Edition support files do not affect Visual Studio 2008 or SQL Server 2008.

To work around this issue, use the Add or Remove Programs item in Control Panel to remove SQL Server 2005 Express Edition.

Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 Beta requires Windows Server 2003 SP2

Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 Beta Setup installs SQL Server 2008 Express Edition. SQL Server 2008 Express Edition does not support Windows Server 2003 SP1.

Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 Beta Setup does not run when a non-Express edition of Visual Studio 2008 is installed on the computer

Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 Beta Setup reports a Visual Studio servicing issue that does not let you continue. Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 Beta is not supported when it is installed on a computer that has a non-Express edition of Visual Studio 2008 installed.

To work around this issue, uninstall any non-Express edition of Visual Studio 2008 before you install Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 Beta.

Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 Beta upgrades SQL Server to SQL Server 2008 only on specific versions of Windows

SQL Server 2008 supports only the following versions of Windows:

• Windows Server 2008 or a later version

• Windows Vista Service Pack 1 or a later version

• Windows XP Service Pack 2 or a later version

• Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 or a later version

For more information about the SQL Server 2008 CTP release, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=100093

By default, ClickOnce deployment uses SQL Server Express 2005 as a prerequisite

By default, Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions SP1 Beta selects SQL Server Express 2005 as a prerequisite when you use ClickOnce to deploy applications that require SQL Server Express 2008.

To work around this issue, manually change the prerequisite in the application from SQL Server Express 2005 to SQL Server Express 2008. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start Visual Studio 2008.

2. Open your application.

3. In Solution Explorer, click a project node.

4. On the Project menu, click a project name, and then click Properties.
   
   

5. In Project Designer, click the Publish tab, and then click Prerequisite.

6. Click to clear the SQL Server 2005 Express Edition check box, and then click to select the SQL Server 2008 Express Edition check box.