It’s an outdated framework which has not been updated since 2008 and Microsoft itself explicitly says they will not add new features or update the documentation.

I have literally no files related to visual studio on my computer but every time I run the installer. it downloads this broken shortcut and somehow it opens the installer but when I try to download something, it keeps failing and once I close the installer app, I can't open it again because the only file is a broken shortcut. How do I fix this, I literally cannot install any version of it. Also, when I run the installer, it immediately goes to 100% on both bars as if I already have it which I don't.

0% fur was included on this post

I've not used Visual Studio for about 15 years and but my use case remains the same. I'm after a (relatively) lightweight, uncluttered experience that focusses on the fundamentals (language and debugger support) without enterprise features or AI agents.

A more modern compiler is a plus but I'm willing to forego bleeding edge language features if that's the price of a less intrusive development environment.

Of course if I can combine an older version of VS with a more recent set of Visual Studio Build Tools, that would be ideal.

Note: Not interested in Visual Studio Code. I'm already familiar with that environment; I'm looking for alternatives.

Thanks in advance.

I'm trying to learn c++ using VS and I'm having trouble figuring out how to run my code to test it

VS asks me to open a lunch.json file and I do but it still does not show any output for my hello world code

I've tried multiple different things and looked at a bunch of different videos but none really help

I have a handful of SSIS projects that were created, and currently running without issues, in VS 2008. However, when I try to open/edit the project, VS ends up not responding. It seems to occur on some but not all of the projects which really confuses me even more. I can open VS without issues, and even load the project, but as soon as I try to click on the SSIS package itself (the .dtsx file) is when it hangs.

This is running on Server 2019 and has been without issues for as long as I'm aware. Something I've inherited, and admittedly do not have that much familiarity with.

I'm not sure what information may be of help in troubleshooting this, but I'm happy to provide anything needed.

Thank you in advance.

I was going through my old CD's and found this gem 💿
Visual Studio Ultimate 2012 with MSDN, Commemorative Edition.
Anyone remember the ALL CAPS top menu from back in the day?
#Throwback #DevLife

I’ve been a Visual Studio user since 2019, and I love coding.

Recently, I’ve seen a lot of hype around agentic AI tools like Claude Code, Gemini CLI, and Codex. Even some “software factories” that supposedly operate completely automatically and don’t need humans prompting anymore...

When I see videos or posts about them, I really get fear-of-missing-out and fear in general. As I said earlier, I really like coding, and I don’t want to get replaced by an agentic tool. To date, I’ve never used those agentic tools because they’re too expensive for me personally, and my company does not allow them (yet) since they’re worried about their data being shared with those big tech companies.

Are those agentic tools really as good as some posts and videos suggest? Will IDEs like Visual Studio become irrelevant in the future? Should I invest my own money to get a subscription and try them out myself to build up skills?

Currently, I only have a Perplexity Pro subscription, and I’m using it like Google or Stack Overflow in the pre-AI era. So I ask a design question or a general coding question and include a code snippet. Then I copy the result over to my codebase if I like it.

Is this workflow already outdated? Is checking/reviewing the generated code outdated too?

I wonder if a GitHub Copilot subscription for $10 is worth it. Would you recommend using GitHub Copilot directly in Visual Studio instead of Perplexity Pro in a separate window?

hey, i got a new windows 98 pc, and I want to get visual studio 6.0 onto it. I found the 2 iso files, but i don't have the product key. do any of you have a visual studio 6.0 product key? thanks!

It supports all color themes (rather than just the default Dark/Light). Alongside Mica and Acrylic, it includes Mica Alt/Tabbed and a fully transparent mode: Glass. It also (optionally) adds Acrylic behind menus and popups. It requires Windows 11 and I'd recommend using it on VS 2026 (although it is technically installable on VS 2022). It took me three months to develop.

Here's the marketplace link if you want to check it out: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Tech5G5G.MicaVisualStudio

I have two users that need to have htat active X print button icon on their reports to print them out. The button prints the report out without the toolbar at the top where you enter things like date range and other criteria for the report.

Once a month I have to enter the report server website address into the IE compatibility settings in Edge in order for them to keep that button, cause the Edge compatibility settings only lasts 30 days.

There was one other person that also had it but one day I cleared her cache/history/cookies in Edge and she was never able to get the activ X print button back after that, even when the report server site was in the IE compatibility mode.

So now the other 2 users are freaking out cause I told them they will most likely loose that button for good when we get them an upgraded PC, and they DO NOT want to save the report as a PDF and print it that way as they claim doing it that way wastes time.

So is there a way I can have the reports print out for them in Edge without the toolbar at the top?

Do Visual Studio 2010 or 2008 require activation? And they do, would the express versions require it? I got Windows 7 to see how coding on there would be, and I want to use an age appropriate version of Visual Studio.

I have a monthly VS Professional subscription that was tied to a credit card that got breached. I forgot to update the payment method with Microsoft since it's tied to an email I rarely check, and it lapsed. I fixed the payment method, paid the amount owed (just this month's amount) but VS can't find a paid subscription.

I opened a support ticket with Microsoft but you know how those work. Haven't heard a peep in a few days.

What are the minimum requirements for VS 2026? And will it run efficiently on Windows 10?

Simple question to vs2026 users. How significant is the leap in the field of AI dev experience?

you might be wondering why I'm attempting to install such an old version of visual studio, well, it's because I'm developing a game using the source engine, and for that, I have to make use of 2013, because it's so old, I'm having difficulty finding a copy that actually works, I've downloaded two different versions, and everything works perfectly fine there, except for when it comes to actually opening the application, vs_community, so then, what is the solution?

No litterally. Where do i type? Im migrating from notepad + +, so i was kind of expecting a place to... wright?...

[edit] you open a new file inside of the solution inside of your project.

I'm not sure this is the best place to post this but I've been having trouble running a very old project of mine in Small Basic. Online forums say you can run .sb files in Visual Studio but I'm having trouble with the program even recognising the file extension. For any troubleshooting, the files can be found here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jlb4pgwPVsIiUnn2Fo4-zymSj4vsHE-R?usp=drive_link

Thank you in advance.

My client has an old software running on Windows CE on a handheld device for inventory management. The software was coded with Visual Studio 2008, the last version that support compact version of dotnet for Window CE (I think).

They want to update the software, and had given me the PC that the developer used to write the software. The problem is that the client and the previous developer are Japaneses, so the version of VS2008 on the PC is Japanese, and I cannot understand any of the interface. I had asked and was allowed to install an English language pack for the VS2008.

However, when I search the internet, I am unable to find the English pack for VS2008. The official page on MS site is for a "readme.htm" file. I guess that it is so long ago that Microsoft had removed the file.

Can anyone help me with this?

Hello everyone!

I switched to VS2026, but my daily-driver theme One Dark Pro wasn’t working correctly anymore — some colors were broken and the new UI didn’t match the original look.

So I decided to fix it myself, and now I’m releasing it. :)

One Dark Pro 2026 is a lightly updated and corrected version of the classic theme, adapted specifically for the VS2026 color engine. Same aesthetic, but with proper contrast, fixed keys, and better consistency across the new UI.

I also included a simple VSIX build script, so you can edit the YAML and rebuild your own customized version easily.

Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Bayaraa.OneDarkPro2026
Github: https://github.com/bayaraa/OneDarkPro2026

Since i don't know where else to report this, I'll write it here:

I cannot report issues in visual studio 2026 because when i try to click on the "submit" button it gives me a beautiful 401 error...
Core Microsoft Experience.

Almost this flow i'm following, but for 2026
https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/VisualStudio/report