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Microsoft Delivers VS2005-Vista Fixes
Visual Studio 2005 SP! Update targets Vista developers.
This January Microsoft pulled out all the stops in launching Vista -- it lined up a fabulous hotel in New York, flew in all the top execs, invited all those who matter in the high-tech press, and had boxes ready to sell in computer stores across the country.
One thing it didn't have was a release of Visual Studio fully equipped to build Vista apps.
The latest version of the IDE, Visual Studio 2005 SP1, released in December, had "compatibility issues" with Vista, in part due to the new security features in the operating system. In fact, Microsoft decided to ship SP1, rather than delay it to resolve the Vista problems.
SP1 Refresh
This month Microsoft is one step closer to its goal of supporting Vista with the release of Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista -- just as the company promised.
Because Vista adds around 7,000 application programming interfaces (APIs) for VS 2005 to track and manage, providing a bug-free experience while working on Vista applications in Visual Studio's integrated development environment has been challenging.
"With this update to Visual Studio, our goal was to ensure developers have the best possible experience on Windows Vista, and that the features developers are using in Visual Studio work as expected," said S. "Soma" Somasegar, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Developer Division, in a statement. "We fixed a number of significant issues around debugging and profiling, and around creating ASP.NET applications for IIS on the developer machine. We also wanted to improve the feedback that Visual Studio gives to developers when an error occurs on Windows Vista."
Despite the improvements included in the refresh, developers won't be able to tap the full potential of Vista-related technologies until the release of the next incarnation of Visual Studio, code-named "Orcas." Somasegar touted Vista's strengths as a development platform, saying it "gives developers a whole new canvas for creating cutting-edge applications."
Community Feedback
Microsoft is increasingly shaping fixes and tweaks to its products based on feedback from developers. "In fact, many of the features in Visual Studio 2005 SP1 originated with reports submitted to our MSDN Product Feedback Center, a site that we set up specifically for customers to log their feedback and have it sent directly to the various product development teams," he says. "I continue to be thankful for the developer community involvement."
Microsoft's Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Update for Windows Vista is available for download now.
About the Author
Stuart J. Johnston has covered technology, especially Microsoft, since February 1988 for InfoWorld, Computerworld, Information Week, and PC World, as well as for Enterprise Developer, XML & Web Services, and .NET magazines.