FIX: You may experience performance issues when you use solutions that contain large Visual Basic projects in Visual Studio 2005 (917452)

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 Visual Studio 2005 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.

Prerequisites

No prerequisites are required.

Restart requirement

You do not have to restart the computer after you apply this hotfix.

Hotfix replacement information

This hotfix replaces the hotfix that is described in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 915038.

Registry information

Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.

To obtain more performance gain from this hotfix, add the OptimizePDB registry value. To do this, follow these steps:

Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
Locate and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\VB Editor
Note If you are using Visual Basic Express, the registry key should be the following: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VBExpress\8.0\VB Editor.
Click Edit, click New, and then click DWORD Value.
Type OptimizePDB, and then press ENTER.
Right-click OptimizePDB, and then click Modify.
Type 1, and then click OK.
Exit Registry Editor.

After you add the OptimizePDB registry value, open the Visual Basic solution in Visual Studio 2005. Then, click Clean Solution on the Build menu.

The OptimizePDB registry value makes the Visual Basic compiler optimize the .pdb file to improve performance. However, the new .pdb file format is not fully compatible with the old .pdb file format. Therefore, a version of Visual Studio 2005 that does not have this hotfix applied may not be able to read the new format of the .pdb file. To resolve this issue, apply this hotfix on all development computers, or click Clean Solution or Rebuild Solution on the Build menu before debugging.

File information

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 item in Control Panel.

This hotfix includes two packages. One package is for Visual Studio 2005, and one package is for the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. Tell the Microsoft Support Professional the package that you want.Visual Studio 2005 package

File name	File version	File size	Date	Time
Msvb7.dll	8.0.50727.93	3,137,536	29-Mar-2006	01:04
Msvbprj.dll	8.0.50727.93	2,768,896	29-Mar-2006	01:05

The .NET Framework 2.0 package

File name	File version	File size	Date	Time
Vbc.exe	8.0.50727.93	1,146,880	29-Mar-2006	04:55

MORE INFORMATION

This performance hotfix has been merged with the hotfix that is described in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 915038. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

915038 FIX: You may receive Visual Basic compiler error messages when you are developing a Visual Basic 2005 project in Visual Studio 2005

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

824684 Description of the standard terminology that is used to describe Microsoft software updates

This performance hotfix affects the following areas of Visual Basic 2005:

Compilation throughput
Symbolic rename performance
Build performance
Memory consumption that is caused by XML documentation and by overhead from the Edit and Continue feature

When you apply this hotfix, you experience the following performance improvements in Visual Studio 2005:

You experience a faster build and rebuild response time.
You experience a faster response time when you press F5 to start debugging.
You experience faster renaming of user controls in the Designer and Code views.
You experience a reduced time for IntelliSense to appear in the editor.
You experience a reduced time to interact with the code editor.
You experience reduced virtual memory consumption by the Devenv.exe process.
When you modify code or you rename controls, you experience reduced CPU utilization in both severity and duration.

If you install this hotfix and you do not have the Msxml6.dll file installed on the computer for some reason, you may receive the following error message for your XML comment blocks:

Warning 1 XML documentation parse error: An invalid character was found in text content. XML comment will be ignored.

To resolve this problem, install the MSXML 6.0 Parser that is included on the Visual Studio 2005 installation media.