Recently I have developed a problem with Visual Studio 2008 (possibly after the latest patch release but not sure).  When I try to add items to the toolbox using the Choose Items option VS crashes. 

I have tried the following

• Exported settings and reset settings to default.
• Deleted the .tbd files in my profile.
• Started Visual Studio in safemode using devenv /safemode

None of these have resulted in any change.  The crash occurs when using the right-click->'Choose Items' in the toolbox as well as selecting 'Choose Toolbox Items' from the tools menu. 

The OS is Vista Ultimate x64 fully updated, VS is fully updated as well.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I could try next?  Ideally I would like to avoid the uninstall/reinstall path if possible due to time constraints.

Thanks

If you want to file a bug, please obtain a crash dump as described here: http://blogs.msdn.com/mikhailarkhipov/archive/2006/07/25/678308.aspx and file a bug at http://connect.microsoft.com 

I have exactly the same problem it would seem... did you have any luck finding a solution to this?

jeremyw:

I have exactly the same problem it would seem... did you have any luck finding a solution to this?

Unfortunately no.  I had this problem happen once last year in VS 2005 and was able to remedy it by cleaning up temp files and defaulting the environment but that didn't do anything with my situation now.  I'll post back if I find a solution.

Pecha:

It works well for me all time, but today I have experienced the same problem. I've executed the following commands in the VS 2008 Command Prompt and this helped me:

1. devenv /setup
2. devenv /resetuserdata
3. devenv /resetsettings CSharp

Thank you for listing your tips.  I will give these a shot.  Hopefully this will do the trick.

HooHa:

devenv /setup

devenv /resetuserdata

devenv /resetsettings CSharp

I just uninstalled VS 2008 sp1 Beta - using the Utility ....

I then installed the VS 2008 sp1  RTM

and now Choose Items throws an Exception every time.

I'm wondering if  Visual Studio PowerCommands msi install might be the culprit ?

Anyway to uninstall the PowerCommands ?

Should I start over and re-install VS 2008 again ?

Best way to remove / uninstall the current version completely ?

Your help is much appreciated, LA Guy 

 I uninstalled Power Commands, and now this works fine for me and Add Items does not crash

So, check your add ons!

 Hope this helps, Thanx

Yep, after uninstalling PowerCommands for Visual Studio ( Vista Ultimate )

the Toolbox Choose Items  no longer crashes.

But, I want to use PowerCommands especially to remove unwanted projects.

Is there a way to fix this incompatibility with PowerCommands ?

UPDATE to this message:

I just re-installed the PowerCommands msi and the choose items no longer crashes.

Go figure .... 

Thanks, LA Guy 

Well, at setup time components may be re-jitted so reinstall perhaps fixed incompatibility with updated framework and CLR. Are you using the latest version of the PWC?

Hi Mikhail,

Yes, PowerCommands 1.1

Downloaded from here:

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/PowerCommands/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=559

PowerCommands.msi
 runtime binary, 276K, uploaded Apr 11 - 24488 downloads 

Regards, LA Guy

I had the same problem and fixed it by removing the Power Command Add-in.

Thanks to everyone for sharing their experience!!!

CN

To fix this problem, I installed and remove the Power Command add-in.

Link to download the Power Command : http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Project/Download/FileDownload.aspx?ProjectName=PowerCommands&DownloadId=951

Tks

KA

I also had the same problem on XP with VS 2008 installed i just excecute my IDE throw  devenv/safemode and added the dlls.

 Thanks for posting that Pecha, that fixed it for me as well. 

There are many posts with the advice of opening VS in safemode.  That did not work for me; VS still crashed with no error message.

When I followed the steps listed by Pecha, then clicked "Choose Items..." from toolbox context menu, I received an error message telling me about an assembly that could not be shown in the customize toolbox dialog bcause it is missing one or more components (for me is was Atalasoft.dotImage.Ocr.GlyphReader.dll).  I was able to click "OK" on the error message and then choose my toolbox items. 

I'm guessing that some bug caused VS to crash on this missing component instead of showing the error message.  The steps listed by Pecha re-enables VS to handle the error gracefully.