Visual Studio 2008 IDE - C# not available

Question

I have installed Visual Studio 2008 Developer Edition which comes with SQL Server and BIDS. This works perfectly fine on my Windows 7 64bit. As C# and VB are not in this Developer Edition I downloaded/installed VS 2008 C# from Microsoft Website.

Problem: When I invoke the IDE for Visual Studio 2008 I still see the SSRS SSIS and stuff from BIDS and no C#!. I tried running the Devenv.exe command as suggested on a number of forums but that didn't work either.

I really appreciate if someone could guide me in getting this IDE to work (C#). I have never worked with Visual Studio before this is my first attemt. Any help would be appreciated.

I could provide more details regarding this issue if required.

vaioman

Answer 1

BIDS is a copy of VS2008 with only SQL projects available.  If you downloaded and installed VS2008 C# or VB Express then you'll get separate icons in the Start Menu for them (they'll same something like Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 C# Express).  You'll have to use the correct icon for the version you want to run.  The Express version does not support building solutions with mixed languages.  For that you'll need to upgrade to a full version of VS 2008.

Michael Taylor - 2/18/2012
http://msmvps.com/blogs/p3net

Answer 2

Thanks for your input CoolDadTx. Yes, I can see a seperate icon for Visual Studio 2008 (there is already one for BIDS). However, both these icons bring up the same BIDS version i.e. no C# only ssrs, ssis e.t.c.  I am now in the process of downloading Visual Studio 2010 professional. Hopefully, I should be able to get it working. Cheers.

Answer 3

VS 2010 will be a separate install so you should be fine.  I would also recommend that you uninstall the 2008 express versions but you'll then want to reinstall SP1 to make sure everything works correctly.

Michael Taylor - 2/21/2012
http://msmvps.com/blogs/p3net