ASP.NET 2.0 Tutorials - Installing Visual Studio.NET 2.0

In this tutorial you will learn the procedure for Installing Visual Studio.NET 2.0 starting with minimum system requirements, runtime setup and side by side installation.

In this tutorial we shall be using Visual Studio.NET 2.0 regular edition. The minimum requirements for installing this version are:

• PC with Pentium II 600 MHz or higher processor
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• Microsoft Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3 or later, Microsoft XP Professional with Service Pack I or later or Microsoft Windows Server 2003.
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• 128 MB of RAM or above
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• 2.5 GB of available hard disk space on the system drive, 1.2 GB of available hard disk space on the installation drive.
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• Microsoft Internet Explorer with Service Pack 1
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• DVD ROM Drive
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• Super VGA (1024x768) or higher resolution with 256 colors.

The performance of the software has not been tuned for minimum system configuration. If the performance is to be improved the user can increase the RAM above the recommended system configuration. This will increase performance, specifically when the user wants to run multiple applications when developing large projects or doing an enterprise level development.

The extensive Read Me file that comes with the package gives solutions to a number of installation and runtime problems and must be read thoroughly by the user before and after installation.

64-bit versions of select components are provided by Visual Studio.NET along with tools for 64-bit development. The runtime setup on 64 bit platforms includes both 32 bit and 64 bit CLR runtime.

1. The 64-bit version of the .NET Framework SDK has to be specifically installed. To do this the user has to run setup.exe in the ‘netSDK64’ directory of the disk labeled ’64 bit Framework SDK’.

2. If the user needs to install Itanium and x64 compiler for Visual C++ he will have to select the ‘Itanium Compilers and tools’ and ‘x64 Compilers and Tools’ during setup. It must be noted that Visual Studio uses the 32-bit cross compiler even on Windows 64 bit computers. However users can use devenv commands to create a command line environment to call the 64 bit hosted tools.

3. 64 bit applications can be debugged on a local or remote computer. If the local computer is running under WOW64 and on Window 64 bit debugging is possible if the 64 bit remote debugger is installed on the local computer. This is available in the disk labeled ‘Visual Studio 2005 Remote Debugger Setup. Debugging on a remote computer also requires the installation of this tool in the remote computer.

Side by Side installations of Visual Studio versions is possible. Visual Studio 6.0, 2002, VS.NET 2003 and VS.NET 2005 can be installed on the same computer. However certain specific issues need to be addressed while installing or removing any version of Visual Studio.

While uninstalling Visual Studio 2005 on a computer having VS.NET 2003 and VS.NET 2005, VS.NET 2003 will require repair.

• A solution created in Visual Studio 2002 or VS.NET 2003 can be opened in Visual studio 2005. However if it is saved in VS.NET 2005, it cannot be opened again in Visual studio 2002.
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• Some of the option settings of the applications created in earlier versions can be copied into VS.NET 2005 by using the Migratesettings dialog box.
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• The way ProgIDs are handled in VS.NET 2005 is different from the earlier versions and hence errors can be thrown up if the Automation compatibility issues and upgrade issues are not handled by applying the necessary add-in solutions.

It follows that .NET Framework versions can also be installed side by side. The same applies with reference to installations of Help.

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