FIX: You may not be able to see a custom user control or a derived Windows Forms control in the Windows Forms Designer in Visual Studio .NET 2003 (911952)

SYMPTOMS

When you open a Microsoft Windows Forms application in Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003, you may not be able to see a custom user control or a derived Windows Forms control in the Windows Forms Designer. Additionally, you may receive lots of build error messages in the Task List window.

This problem occurs when the following conditions are true:

The Windows Forms application contains a custom user control or a derived Windows Forms control that contains tabs.
Each tab in the custom user control or in the derived Windows Forms control contains many controls.

CAUSE

In Visual Studio .NET 2003, when the Windows Forms Designer detects errors as it tries to load the Windows Forms application, the Windows Forms Designer tries to recover from the errors. To recover from the errors, the Windows Forms Designer removes the references to the controls that caused the errors.

Note When the Windows Forms Designer removes the references to the controls, you may lose some data.

RESOLUTION

Hotfix information

A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that is described in this article. Only apply it to systems that are experiencing this specific problem. This hotfix may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 service pack that contains this hotfix.

To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services telephone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support

Note In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

The English version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later file attributes) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.

File name	File version	File size	Date	Time
Microsoft.visualstudio.dll	1.1.4322.2359	1,200,128	07-Dec-2005	23:49
Microsoft.vsdesigner.dll	7.10.5025.0	3,772,416	10-Dec-2005	01:03

MORE INFORMATION

This hotfix changes the behavior of the Windows Forms Designer. After you apply this hotfix, the Windows Forms Designer does not try to recover from the errors that it detects as it tries to load the Windows Forms application. Instead, the Windows Forms Designer does not load the Windows Forms application. Additionally, the errors are listed in the Task List window. The errors in the Task List window must be fixed before you can see the custom user control or the derived Windows Forms control and before the Windows Forms application can be loaded.

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: