in recent weeks, i am not able to build my visual studio 2008 project in release mode.
i am using the same old project and the same source file, but when compiling on release mode, visual studio hangs on the linking stage. i am using c++ and win32 SDK
how did it happen and what should i do to resolve this?
That's not exactly a typical problem with link.exe. First make sure that you have the "whole program optimization" feature turned off, the /GL compiler option and /LTCG linker option. If that doesn't help you'll need to gather some evidence that might pinpoint the source of the problem. SysInternals' ProcMon.exe utility is good for that.
If that doesn't help, check if this happens on another machine as well so you can eliminate some environment cause (like a virus scanner). If that doesn't help, you'll probably need the help from Microsoft Support. They'll need your project to troubleshoot the problem, you'll get your money back if it is a MSFT bug.