vs2005 startup issue with web proxy

Question

Starting last week my vs2005 reported a startup error of
"Error creating the Web Proxy specified in the 'system.net/defaultProxy' configuration section"

After this, the usual MS info screen does not display, no web pages, TFS is broken and Visual Assist won't start.
vc6 and vc2008 start fine and do all the normal things.

An uninstall of .net 2.0 +SP1 and reinstall, the vs2005 itself unistall, reinstall (nb: visual studio 8 files not manually deleted after uninstall) does not resolve the issue.

A manual change of devenv.exe under
(under system.net)
          <defaultProxy>
            <proxy usesystemdefault="false"/>
        </defaultProxy>

got me TFS working but nothing else.

A wireshark session between vs2005 and vs2008 seems to show no difference.
I couldn't spot anything useful in a procmon trace of file handling.

>> I would like to know how to debug / fix this issue as it is very frustrating ?

Thanks

p.s: If it is anyway related, i have lost the ability to have share directories.
I have no sharing options on the property tab. I am within a domain.

Answer 1

Hi Greg B Roberts,

Could you please try running devenv.exe /resetuserdata? This will reset VS to its out-of-box state if Visual Studio ever runs into a damaged state that you cannot recover from.
For more information, see: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb245788(VS.80).aspx#vs05idetips_topic6 (also apply to VS2008)
Be aware that this will reset all of your VS environment and customization settings.

Let me know if it works.

Thanks

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Answer 2

Thanks for the info. I will add to our internal wiki. Decided to scrub PC and re-install everything.
currently can't install vc6 but have found an article referencing autoexec.nt with xp sp2 which looks like it will resolve the issue.