Having suffered the interminable installation of VS2008 Pro on both my desktop and laptop, both running Vista Ultimate 32-bit, I was annoyed that the very first thing I did on VS2008 failed on both machines. All I did was create a new Web site, targetted at .NET 3.5. The default page complains that the page directive is invalid with a "child nodes not allowed" error pointing at the web.config file section <system.codedom>. When you try to run this, it reports the same error, but the error page indicates that the ASP.NET Development Server is running against the .NET 2.0 framework. Obviously, the 3.5-format web.config file is not caompatible with .NET 2.0.

The problem seems to be Vista's use of IIS7. The default application pool is pointing at .NET 2.0; trying to amend this reveals there's no .NET 3.0 or 3.5 in the ".NET Framework version" drop-down. Nor do they appear when trying to add a new app pool. Why not? Is the development server taking it's settings from IIS7? If so, how do you change this and how do you add an application pool with the 3.0 or 3.5 frameworksm in it?

Having spent the entire day on the installations and this problem, I'm just about spitting feathers. If anyone can help (I can't believe I'm the only one with this problem), please reply!

TIA,
Graham

GAuty:

there's no .NET 3.0 or 3.5 in the ".NET Framework version" drop-down. Nor do they appear when trying to add a new app pool. Why not?

That is because .NET 3.5 still uses the .NET 2.0 runtime under the hood. The only changes in .NET 3.5 were some additional class libraries and very minor changes to already existing ones. As far as IIS is concerned, .NET 3.5 and 2.0 are the same (even though you have to have 3.5 installed to get 3.5 apps functioning properly). There should not be a 3.5 in the ASP.NET version for IIS.

Unfortunately, I didn't have any problems getting 2008 to install and use IIS.

Okay, that sounds reasonable, but there's obviously a difference between the web.config file format for .net 2.0 and 3.5, because this is what the compiler's complaining about:

Did you set it up on Vista?

I have exactly the same problem. Vista64 Business. VS2008 Express final

Please see this post with further details. http://forums.asp.net/t/1186941.aspx

Someone must know the answer to this - it's not just me suffering this problem.

I think I've found the solution to this, after a lot of digging around.

With this problem, as well as the ASP.NET web site error, you also get:

• a problem opening the form designer in a Windows Forms application ("The service Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.ISelectionContainer already exists in the service container. Parameter name: serviceType.")
• an error when you try to compile a console application ("Required file 'alink.dll with IAlink3' could not be found").

There are probably other situations which produce errors as well, but I was so disheartened I didn't test any more!

[Incidentally, it would help a great deal if you could copy the text of an error message out of the dialog box when an error occurs. Microsoft used to allow you to do this, as I recall with SQL 2005 errors, but these errors don't allow it and it's a pain copying them down due to their length.]

However, it seems that the installation disc for VS2008 Pro contains a couple of patches which should normally be installed during the installation of VS2008, but for some reason as yet undetermined, were not in my case (although I have seen mention that it's something to do with Office 2007, but I can't confirm that). Remember, I had the identical situation on both my desktop and my laptop.

These patches are in the folder [drive]:\WCU\dotNetFramework\dotNetMSP\[x64 | x86] and should be installed in this order:

1. NetFX2.0-KB110806-v6000-x[64 | 86].msu
2. NetFX3.0-KB929300-v6000-x[64 | 86].msu

There are also a couple of other patches in this folder, NetFX2.0-KB936704-v6000-x[64 | 86]_RTM-en.msu and NetFX2.0-KB936705-v6000-x[64 | 86]_RTM-en.msu, but these both fail if you try to install them. I suspect that these may be called during the VS2008 installation to bootstrap the installation of the patches above. Note that if you search for these Knowledge Base articles on the Microsoft site, the articles either do not exist, or they make no mention of any of these problems.  

I hope this helps other people to get round this problem, which has consumed far too much of my time. Microsoft plase take note - this is affecting tons of people and cannot be swept under the carpet because you can't reproduce it on a clean install of Vista. If you want to encourage developers to use VS2008 on Vista, make sure it installs correctly on real-world boxes.

I'm now up and running and can get down to work - just in time for the weekend

Graham

I've found those patches and applied them, but nothing changed. Have you really fixed it this way? If yes, please, what were your steps? In what order have you installed patches, .NET 3.5, VS2008 etc? It seems that it's important to know this.

By the way - I have exactly the same problems as you described, so it must have even the same solution..:-)

I have same issues as the others.  When I tried to install the patches on my Vista x86 Ultimate machine it said 'Update does not apply to your system'.

This is a major headache and time consumer.  Vista isn't worth the troubles and inconveniences.

Dunross:

I've found those patches and applied them, but nothing changed. Have you really fixed it this way? If yes, please, what were your steps? In what order have you installed patches, .NET 3.5, VS2008 etc? It seems that it's important to know this.

By the way - I have exactly the same problems as you described, so it must have even the same solution..:-)

Hi Dunross,

Yes, this is exactly the way I fixed it. My installation process was: VS2008 Pro, then MSDN for VS2008, followed by these two patches, in the order noted (KB110805 then KB929300). Following this, a reboot is required. This solved my problems on both machines it affected. These patches should be installed during the installation of VS2008, and I've had it confirmed by a Microsoft guy here in the UK that these are service packs for .NET 2.0 and .NET 3.0 frameworks.

If this still doesn't work for you, I suggest you uninstall VS2008, download the .NET 3.5 redistributable and install that, then try VS2008 again.

Incidentally, while digging around over this, I installed VS2008 on a clean build of Vista Ultimate 32-bit in a Virtual PC, and did not see this problem, so it's obviously something to do with the setup of a real-worl PC - mine have nothing unusual on them, no beta software, mostly Microsoft stuff and Adobe software, and they were fully patched with Windows Update.

Let me know how you get on.

Graham

JB3:

I have same issues as the others.  When I tried to install the patches on my Vista x86 Ultimate machine it said 'Update does not apply to your system'.

This is a major headache and time consumer.  Vista isn't worth the troubles and inconveniences.

Hi JB3,

Make sure you have tried to install the appropriate patches for your Vista installation: for the 32-bit version, use the x86 patches, and for the 64-bit version, use the x64 patches. Otherwise, all I can suggest is you uninstall VS2008 and .NET 3.5, download the .NET 3.5 redistributable, install it and re-boot, then try the VS2008 installation again. Check if the two patches are installed by looking in the Installed Updates section of Control Panel's Programs section. Look for "Update for Microsoft Windows (KB110806)" and "Update for Microsoft Windows (KB929300)".

Re Vista, I agree with you - I chose to install Vista when my XP dev box packed-up on me, and as a developer I have had a number of frustrations and a lot of pain, not least of which being that VS2005 doesn't work properly, and you can't even install VS2003; so you end up running XP in Virtual Machines just so you can run the dev tools! Vista is way slooooowwwww, Windows Explorer can't copy large files of directories around and keeps hanging, drivers are hit and miss, and some programs just don't seem to work properly on my desktop machine - most notably Nero and anything to do with a DVD re-writer drive. As for UAC, don't even get me started.

There have been several occasions when I've been close to downgrading to XP, this latest with VS2008 being the closest yet.

Graham

Followed your instructions and that seemed to help matters.  Now I get what follows below.  I have tried the most obvious (set overrideModeDefault's to overrideModeDefault="Allow", and added a location section for WebTest) but no luck

Server Error
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HTTP Error 500.19 - Internal Server Error
Description: The requested page cannot be accessed because the related configuration data for the page is invalid.

Error Code: 0x80070021
Notification: BeginRequest
Module: IIS Web Core
Requested URL: http://localhost:80/WebTest
Physical Path: c:\inetpub\wwwroot\WebTest
Logon User: Not yet determined
Logon Method: Not yet determined
Handler: Not yet determined

Config Error: This configuration section cannot be used at this path. This happens when the section is locked at a parent level. Locking is either by default (overrideModeDefault="Deny"), or set explicitly by a location tag with overrideMode="Deny" or the legacy allowOverride="false".

Config File: \\?\c:\inetpub\wwwroot\WebTest\web.config

Config Source:   139:       </modules>
  140:       <handlers>
  141:         <remove name="WebServiceHandlerFactory-Integrated"/>

 More Information... This error occurs when there is a problem reading the configuration file for the Web server or Web application. In some cases, the event logs may contain more information about what caused this error.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Server Version Information: Internet Information Services 7.0.

GAuty:

Hi Dunross,

Yes, this is exactly the way I fixed it. My installation process was: VS2008 Pro, then MSDN for VS2008, followed by these two patches, in the order noted (KB110805 then KB929300). Following this, a reboot is required. This solved my problems on both machines it affected. These patches should be installed during the installation of VS2008, and I've had it confirmed by a Microsoft guy here in the UK that these are service packs for .NET 2.0 and .NET 3.0 frameworks.

If this still doesn't work for you, I suggest you uninstall VS2008, download the .NET 3.5 redistributable and install that, then try VS2008 again.

Incidentally, while digging around over this, I installed VS2008 on a clean build of Vista Ultimate 32-bit in a Virtual PC, and did not see this problem, so it's obviously something to do with the setup of a real-worl PC - mine have nothing unusual on them, no beta software, mostly Microsoft stuff and Adobe software, and they were fully patched with Windows Update.

Let me know how you get on.

Graham

Thank you Graham, it really worked! I owe you one!;-)

I'm having the same problem with the RTM build on 32-bit Vista Ultimate. After much work, I fought my way through it.

First, I tried installing the two patches mentioned earlier. After running each patch mentioned above, my machine said the patch was not needed.

Second, I moved on to uninstalling and reinstalling. This didn't help.

Thirdly, I re-ran the patches, this time requesting elevation before each patch. Unlike before, the first patch took and installed without issue. So I re-started my machine. When I ran the second patch as an elevated user, it ran through the installation process (unlike before) but concluded by saying it couldn't install the update. Without restarting, I opened VS.NET 2008 and found I could open the forms designer without the error.

Hurrah. I think.