Improving the Start-up Performance of the WPF and Silverlight Designer in Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2

Question

This post is to let you know about a configuration change (registry switch) which you can use to improve the startup performance of the WPF and Silverlight Designer in Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2.

Important:
1. Since this was a late-breaking change, you may experience some instability or increased Virtual Memory usage in some Visual Studio scenarios when using it. If you see such instabilities, please try removing the configuration change, and let us know about the problem you saw (you can do this by replying to this posting or by raising a bug on Connect).

2. You should only make this configuration change if you are a regular user of the WPF and Silverlight Designer, and are experiencing poor performance with it.

3. This configuration change will allow you to see the best designer performance, but will not be necessary in the final released versions of the product.

NOTE:
Editing the registry can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall Windows. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk. Refer to the article on registry editing for your OS (e.g http://support.microsoft.com/kb/136393) for advice. 

1. Close any open VS instances
2. Open RegEdit (as an administrator as needed)
3. Select:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0 key (if you are running a 32 bit OS)
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0 key (if you are running a 64 bit OS)

4. Right click and add key, type ClrHost
5. In the newly created key, right click and add a DWORD32 with the name StartupFlags
6. Set its value to 5
7. Close RegEdit
8. Start up Visual Studio and use as normal

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Mark Wilson-Thomas - Program Team - WPF & SL Designer for Visual Studio - posts are provided 'as-is'

Answer 1

Any changes to stability?

Answer 2

Hi @tau

are you experiencing particular stability issues with the WPF and Silverlight designer in Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2? Can you describe?

Thanks
Mark

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Mark Wilson-Thomas - Program Team - WPF & SL Designer for Visual Studio - posts are provided 'as-is'

Answer 3

To viewers of this thread: some users are finding that they need to reboot Windows in order to see the effects of this registry key change. If you don't see immediate benefits, please try rebooting Windows.

Thanks
Mark

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Mark Wilson-Thomas - Program Team - WPF & SL Designer for Visual Studio - posts are provided 'as-is'