Visual Studio.NET version 7.0 Beta 1 Readme

Although this beta release reflects the design of the final Visual Studio.NET product, a number of feature area details are still being refined. Consequently, development work you do with the Beta 1 release of Visual Studio might require changes to work with subsequent releases. We generally advise that you do not use the Beta 1 release to create production applications.



Visual Studio.NET Beta 1 is designed for evaluation and education purposes on test equipment only. Installing to machines that you depend on for day-to-day operations either for yourself or for your business is strongly discouraged.



Creating and deploying production applications is neither supported nor recommended, due to the early stage of the tools’ development. Users should save their work frequently. No compatibility between Beta 1 and future beta or production releases is planned. This means that projects developed using Beta 1 will need to be recreated using Beta 2 and later releases.



The hardware requirements for this Beta 1 release will be significantly higher, and its performance will be significantly lower than the final Visual Studio.NET release.



1. Introduction

The Visual Studio.NET version 7.0 Beta 1 release contains prerelease versions of the Microsoft® Visual Studio.NET® environment, programmability, and Visual Database Tools as well as prerelease versions of Microsoft® Visual Basic.NET®, Microsoft® Visual C++.NET®, Microsoft® Visual C#TM, and Microsoft® Visual FoxPro® version 7.0.



2. Getting Started with Visual Studio.NET

2.1. System Requirements

Visual Studio.NET has the following minimum system requirements:



Processor: Pentium II-class, 450 MHz (recommended: Pentium III-class, 733 MHz)

RAM: 96 MB (recommended: 128 MB)

Available Hard Disk Space: 3 GB

Note   Visual Studio.NET cannot be installed to a mapped drive. You must install Visual Studio.NET on a local hard drive.

Video: 800 x 600, 256 colors (recommended: High Color 16-bit)

CD-ROM Drive: Required

Operating System: Microsoft Windows® 2000, Windows NT® 4, Windows® Me, and Windows® 98

Note   Performance has not yet been tuned for minimum requirements. Using the recommended system configuration will maximize performance.

Note   Installation on Windows NT 4.0, Terminal Server Edition is not supported.

2.2. Installation

Visual Studio.NET version 7.0 Beta 1 has been tested on Windows 2000, Windows NT 4, Windows Me, and Windows 98.



Additionally, it has been tested on these operating systems with combinations of Microsoft Office 2000 and Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0. You should expect to install this release successfully on each of these Operating Systems alongside these other Microsoft applications and experience similar levels of product stability in Visual Studio.NET version 7.0 Beta 1. Features of Office and Visual Studio 6.0 should be unaffected. There is some risk, however, that installing Visual Studio.NET version 7.0 Beta 1 may affect the operations of these other Microsoft applications. Check the release notes in README.HTM located in the root of Visual Studio CD1 and the latest information on the Beta 1 Web site at http://beta.visualstudio.net.



You should be aware that there is a larger risk that installing Visual Studio.NET version 7.0 Beta 1 may affect other applications on the same system. The first phase of the Visual Studio.NET version 7.0 Beta 1 installation updates many system components. Some of these system components, Microsoft XML Parser (MSXML) v.3.0 and Microsoft.NET Framework SDK, are themselves only at beta quality. Use caution and common sense for where you install this release.



Installing to machines that you depend on for day-to-day operations either for yourself or for your business is strongly discouraged. The support infrastructure is not yet in place if and when software defects in the beta block your ability to use your other applications on the same system. Install, evaluate, and test this release on a machine at your own risk.



2.3. Setting up Visual Studio.NET

To install Visual Studio.NET, you need the following installation CDs: Windows Component Update 1.0, Visual Studio.NET CD1, and Visual Studio.NET CD2. If you plan to install Microsoft Application Center 2000, it should be installed before Visual Studio.NET.



If you have previously installed Visual Studio 7.0 PDC Technology Preview on your computer, you must complete the following steps to uninstall the previous release.



To uninstall Visual Studio 7.0 PDC Technology Preview



From the Start menu, choose Run.

In the Run dialog box, type the following: msiexec.exe /x {33334F07-0C6B-11D3-A51D-00A0C9231BA1} NOVSUI=1

Answer Yes, when prompted, to proceed with the removal of Visual Studio.NET PDC Tech Preview.

In the Run dialog box, type the following: msiexec.exe /x {62EDCF3C-69F4-11D3-A521-00A0C9231BA1}

Answer Yes, when prompted, to proceed with removal of the Pre-release Bootstrap for Visual Studio.NET PDC Tech Preview.

From the Start menu, choose Settings and then Control Panel.

Choose the Add/Remove Programs and then choose Change or Remove Programs.

Select Microsoft NGWS SDK and choose Change/Remove.

Answer Yes to proceed with removal.

Installing on Windows 2000

Close all open applications.

Verify that Internet Information Services is installed.

Note   These steps are required for installations of Windows 2000 Professional, which does not install Internet Information Services by default. The default Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2000 Advanced Server installations include Internet Information Services. If Internet Information Services was deselected during the installation of Windows 2000 Server or Windows 2000 Advanced Server, you must also perform these steps.

Choose Start on the Windows taskbar, and then Settings, and then choose Control Panel.

Select Add/Remove Programs.

In the Add/Remove Programs dialog box, choose Add/Remove Windows Components.

In the Windows Components Wizard, select Internet Information Services (IIS) in the Components list and then choose Next.

Choose Finish and then choose Close.

Verify that FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions are installed and configured.

Note   FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions must be installed before running Visual Studio.NET setup. If this component is not installed beforehand, critical files will be overwritten when installing the original FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions.

Note   These steps are required for installations of Windows 2000 on FAT16 or FAT32 file systems. By default, FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions are configured when Windows 2000 is installed on the NTFS file system.

Choose Start on the Windows Taskbar, and then Settings, and then choose Control Panel.

Select Administrative Tools, and then select Computer Management.

In the Computer Management dialog box, expand the Services and Applications node, and then expand the Internet Information Services node.

Right-click Default Web Site, choose All Tasks, and then choose Configure Server Extensions.

Note   If the Configure Server Extensions menu command is missing, FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions are already installed on your computer. You can skip to step 4.

Choose Next on the first page of the Server Extensions Configuration Wizard.

Choose Yes in the Warning dialog box.

Choose No for configuring the mail server settings, then choose Next.

Choose Finish.

Insert the CD labeled Visual Studio.NET CD1.

Autorun starts Setup.exe. If Autorun is disabled, run Setup.exe from the root of the CD using Windows Explorer.



Note   Visual Studio.NET version 7.0 Beta 1 cannot be installed to a mapped drive. You must install Visual Studio.NET version 7.0 Beta 1 on a local hard drive. Do not attempt to use the "map network drive" functionality inside the setup program.

Installing on Windows NT 4

Close all open applications.

Install the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack if you do not already have Internet Information Server 4.0. Visit http://www.microsoft.com/ntworkstation/downloads/Recommended/ServicePacks/NT4OptPk/Default.asp to download the Option Pack. Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0, which is included in the Option Pack, is required to develop Web applications. IIS can be installed on a local development machine or a remote server. Whichever location you choose to install on, all Web applications later created must be saved to this location.

Note   This step MUST be done before running Visual Studio.NET setup. The setup installs Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6a, which updates the Option Pack files.

Insert the CD labeled Visual Studio.NET CD1.

Autorun starts Setup.exe. If Autorun is disabled, run Setup.exe from the root of the CD using Windows Explorer.



Note   Visual Studio.NET version 7.0 Beta 1 cannot be installed to a mapped drive. You must install Visual Studio.NET version 7.0 Beta 1 on a local hard drive. Do not attempt to use the "map network drive" functionality inside the setup program.

Verify FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions are configured.

Note   These steps are required for installations of Windows NT 4 on FAT16 or FAT32 file systems. By default, FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions are configured when Windows NT 4 is installed on the NTFS file system.

Choose Start on the Windows Taskbar, and then Programs, and then choose Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack | Microsoft Internet Information Server | Internet Service Manager.

Expand the Console Root node.

Expand the Internet Information Server node.

Right-click Default Web Site, and choose Task, and then choose Configure Server Extensions.

Note   If the Configure Server Extensions menu command is missing, FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions are already installed on your computer. You can skip this step.

Chooser Next on the first page of the Server Extensions Configuration Wizard.

Choose Next on the Create Windows Groups page.

Choose Next on the Access Control page.

Choose No for configuring the mail server settings, then choose Next.

Choose Finish.

Installing on Windows Me and Windows 98

Windows Me and Windows 98 require no preparation before installing Visual Studio.NET. You may wish to configure a Windows 2000 Server or Windows NT4 Server computer with Internet Information Services 4.0 or greater and FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions Service Release 1.2. A Web server is required to develop web applications. For more information, see the section titled "Configuring a Web Server for Visual Studio.NET".



Insert the CD labeled Visual Studio.NET CD1.

Autorun starts Setup.exe. If Autorun is disabled, run Setup.exe from the root of the CD using Windows Explorer.



Note   Visual Studio.NET version 7.0 Beta 1 cannot be installed to a mapped drive. You must install Visual Studio.NET version 7.0 Beta 1 on a local hard drive. Do not attempt to use the "map network drive" functionality inside the setup program.

2.4. Uninstalling Visual Studio.NET

To uninstall Visual Studio.NET version 7.0 Beta 1



Use Add/Remove from the Control Panel.

Note   To reinstall Visual Studio.NET, make sure that you have uninstalled using the above step. Then return to step 1 under "Setting up Visual Studio.NET" to reinstall.