Visual Studio 2008, and Visual Studio Team System 2008 codenamed Orcas (a reference to Orcas Island, also an island in Puget Sound, like Whidbey for the previous 2005 release), were released to MSDN subscribers on 19 November 2007 alongside .NET Framework 3.5. The source code for the Visual Studio 2008 IDE is available under a shared source license to some of Microsoft's partners and ISVs. Microsoft released Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2008 on 11 August 2008. The internal version number of Visual Studio 2008 is version 9.0 while the file format version is 10.0. Visual Studio 2008 is the last version to support targeting Windows 2000 for C++ applications.
Visual Studio 2008 is focused on development of Windows Vista, 2007 Office system, and Web applications. For visual design, a new Windows Presentation Foundation visual designer and a new HTML/CSS editor influenced by Microsoft Expression Web are included. J# is not included. Visual Studio 2008 requires .NET 3.5 Framework and by default configures compiled assemblies to run on .NET Framework 3.5, but it also supports multi-targeting which lets the developers choose which version of the .NET Framework (out of 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, Silverlight CoreCLR or .NET Compact Framework) the assembly runs on. Visual Studio 2008 also includes new code analysis tools, including the new Code Metrics tool (only in Team Edition and Team Suite Edition). For Visual C++, Visual Studio adds a new version of Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC 9.0) that adds support for the visual styles and UI controls introduced with Windows Vista. For native and managed code interoperability, Visual C++ introduces the STL/CLR, which is a port of the C++ Standard Template Library (STL) containers and algorithms to managed code. STL/CLR defines STL-like containers, iterators and algorithms that work on C++/CLI managed objects.[89][90]
Visual Studio 2008 features include an XAML-based designer (codenamed Cider), workflow designer, LINQ to SQL designer (for defining the type mappings and object encapsulation for SQL Server data), XSLT debugger, JavaScript Intellisense support, JavaScript Debugging support, support for UAC manifests, a concurrent build system, among others. It ships with an enhanced set of UI widgets, both for Windows Forms and WPF. It also includes a multithreaded build engine (MSBuild) to compile multiple source files (and build the executable file) in a project across multiple threads simultaneously. It also includes support for compiling PNG-compressed icon resources introduced in Windows Vista. An updated XML Schema designer will ship separately some time after the release of Visual Studio 2008.
The Visual Studio debugger includes features targeting easier debugging of multi-threaded applications. In debugging mode, in the Threads window, which lists all the threads, hovering over a thread will display the stack trace of that thread in tooltips. The threads can directly be named and flagged for easier identification from that window itself. In addition, in the code window, along with indicating the location of the currently executing instruction in the current thread, the currently executing instructions in other threads are also pointed out. The Visual Studio debugger supports integrated debugging of the .NET 3.5 Framework Base Class Library (BCL) which can dynamically download the BCL source code and debug symbols and allow stepping into the BCL source during debugging. As of 2010 a limited subset of the BCL source is available, with more library support planned for later.
Supported .NET Framework versions: 2.0, 3.0, 3.5
The product was released
2007-11-19
Application Details:
| Version: | 2008 (9.0) |
| License: | Retail |
| URL: | http://www.visualstudio.net |
| Votes: | 22 |
| Latest Rating: | Garbage |
| Latest Wine Version Tested: | 3.13 |
Maintainers: About Maintainership
What works
Winetricks installation up until the actual install of visual Studio 2008, which fails with an error. Once installed, Opening a project works. Compilation works. Creating a new file works.
What does not
After installing with winetricks,Visual Studio 2008 did not install. I found the $HOME/.cache/winetricks/vc2008express/*iso file, burned it to DVD, and deleted it (I figured I would like to save room on the hard drive). I opened the terminal, typed in "export export WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.local/share/wineprefixes/vc2008expres" and proceeded to change directory to the DVD and install it from there. Installation went normally. After installation, the desktop icon didn't work. It complained about "the application data folder for microsoft visual c++ 2008 express could not be created." The following site http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/Vsexpressvc/thread/c2802f31-d4b7-4951-8970-133c1c120637 recommended regedit and changing HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Widows\Current Version\Explorer\User Shell Folders. I changed AppData to "%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data" which did the trick. This works because "%USERPROFILE%\Application Data" does not exist. I could have just as easily created a folder named C:\\users\\$USER\\Application\ Data Creating a new Windows project fails. The Accept button is unresponsive.
Workarounds
What was not tested
Creating programs. Using the interface. Saving Solutions.
Hardware tested
Graphics:
Additional Comments
| Operating system | Test date | Wine version | Installs? | Runs? | Used Workaround? | Rating | Submitter | ||
| Show | Arch Linux x86_64 | Aug 12 2018 | 3.13 | No | Not installable | Yes | Garbage | Isira Seneviratne | |
| Current | Fedora 18 x86_64 | Mar 27 2013 | 1.5.24 | No, but has workaround | Yes | No | Bronze | Henry Kroll | |
| Show | Debian GNU/Linux 7.x "Wheezy" | Dec 06 2011 | 1.3.34 | No | Not installable | No | Garbage | an anonymous user | |
| Show | Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick" amd64 (+ variants like Kubuntu) | Dec 22 2010 | 1.2.2 | No | Not installable | No | Garbage | an anonymous user | |
| Show | Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic" i386 (+ variants like Kubuntu) | Mar 15 2010 | 1.1.40 | No | Not installable | No | Garbage | an anonymous user |
| Bug # | Description | Status | Resolution | Other apps affected |
| 5351 | Windows Installer 3.1 cannot install because of non-standard drive labeling | CLOSED | FIXED | View |
| 9158 | Multiple Microsoft development tools online/web installers fail to skip "$shtdwn$.req" with FILE_ATTRIBUTE_HIDDEN (Visual Studio Express Editions, .NET Framework 3.0) | CLOSED | FIXED | View |
| 10547 | .NET 3.5 Framework installation problems (msi, bits, crypt32) | CLOSED | FIXED | View |
| 10601 | Microsoft .NET Framework: GAC API for managed assembly installation needs reparse point/junction API support (.NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 installers and other apps that make use of GAC API) | CLOSED | DUPLICATE | View |
| 14875 | VS 2008 Express Editions (SP1) installer fails with directory resolution error | CLOSED | FIXED | View |
| 15619 | Visual Studio 2008 Installer Hangs after err:seh:setup_exception_record stack overflow | CLOSED | DUPLICATE | View |
| 18070 | Multiple apps need separate msi custom action server process due to COM/MTA and/or isolation issues (Adobe CS3/CS4, Flash, Windows SDK 2008, Strawberry Perl, MS Office 2010) | CLOSED | FIXED | View |
| 19008 | Crash at installation of visual 2008 | CLOSED | DUPLICATE | View |
| 20127 | Empty notes in appdb | CLOSED | FIXED | View |
| 22870 | Microsoft Visual Studio 2008: debugging applications through remote debugger "msvsmon.exe" fails | CLOSED | WORKSFORME | View |
| 25462 | Unable to break using 'Break All' button while remote debugging with VS2008 (software breakpoint overwrites syscall instruction in VDSO page) | CLOSED | FIXED | View |
| 29354 | Multiple Microsoft product installers fail due to ProductID being set during client side "ValidateProductID" standard action (Microsoft Virtual PC 2004, 2007, Visual Studio 2008) | NEW | View | |
| 29905 | Microsoft Visual Studio 2008: attaching to process fails with "unknown error: 0x80070003" (support of "Session" namespace for named objects needed) | CLOSED | FIXED | View |
| 32562 | Visual Studio 2005-2010 Express Editions need jscript JScript_AddTypeLib impl | NEW | View |
Make sure you operate on a clean 32-bit WINEPREFIX (~/.wine)!
Prerequisite installation by using 'winetricks' script
Winetricks will take care of all needed installation prerequisites and work around some problems.
To install it, follow the instructions in the link.
$ bash winetricks -q dotnet35
If you intend to install VS 2008 SP1 you need .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
$ bash winetricks -q dotnet35sp1
Winbind component
Make sure you installed 'winbind' component with your distribution package manager.
This is needed for the -Zi option of the compiler, and other mechanisms that handle 'PDB' (Program Data Base) files.
Debian:
$ aptitude install winbind
Fedora:
$ sudo dnf install samba-winbind*.x86_64 samba-winbind*.i686
Never run wine as root (su, sudo)! Wine doesn't require to be run as root!
You will screw your WINEPREFIX and possibly other things up. If you have run Wine as root you need to:
and then run winecfg to set Wine folder structure back up. If you used winetricks script as root you might also need to:
Again: Just run wine as regular user and all should be fine.
Installer fails first time at:
fixme:ntdll:server_ioctl_file Unsupported ioctl 900a4 (device=9 access=0 func=29 method=0)
err:msi:msi_install_assembly Failed to install assembly L"C:\\users\\
err:msi:ACTION_InstallFiles Failed to install assembly
err:msi:ITERATE_Actions Execution halted, action L"InstallFiles" returned 1603
This is due to missing junction support. The following files are special and cause this problem:
C:\windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\WcfSvcHost\9.0.0.0 __ 31bf3856ad364e35 ->
C:\windows\WinSxS\MSIL_WcfSvcHost_31bf3856ad364e35_9.0.0.0_x-ww_e0abf5ea (WcfSvcHost.exe)
C:\windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\IEExecRemote\2.0.0.0 __ b03f5f7f11d50a3a ->
C:\windows\WinSxS\MSIL_IEExecRemote_b03f5f7f11d50a3a_2.0.0.0_x-ww_6e57c34e (IEExecRemote.dll)
C:\windows\assembly\GAC_32\System. EnterpriseServices\2.0.0.0 __ b03f5f7f11d50a3a -> C:\windows\WinSxS\x86_System.EnterpriseServices_b03f5f7f11d50a3a_2.0.0.0_x-ww_7d5f3790
(System.EnterpriseServices.dll, System.EnterpriseServices.Wrapper.dll)
Solution: run the installer a second time (installer won't attempt to create junctions on second run)
The following installer message in console is expected and harmless:
This is expected when you try to install any non-pro variant of MS Visual Studio 2008.
0028:trace:msi:MSI_ProcessMessage (nil) (nil) (nil) 0 1 L"1: (Error): 2: Visual Studio 2005 Smart Device Programmability not correctly installed. Please install Visual Studio 2005: CreateInstance(CDeviceSDKInstallShim{B888FC95-8C8D-4C70-9BB6-DA1360218667}) failed. "
You need to uncheck all "Smart Device Programmability" options from all languages (C/C++, C#, Visual Basic) by using "custom install".
This is Bug 21259.
Workaround: start 'mspdbsrv.exe' manually before visual C++, with an 'infinite' timeout.
$ wine $WINEPREFIX/drive_c/Program\ Files/Microsoft\ Visual\ Studio\ 9.0/Common7/IDE/mspdbsrv.exe -start -spawn -shutdowntime -1
You can create a shell script that starts both mspdbsrv.exe and VCEXpress.exe, if mspdbsrv.exe is already running, it will be ignored the second time it is invoked.
