VS 2008 - No hints when type code

Question

Hi

For some reason I started VS 2008 this morning and I wont display any hints when type. For example, If I had an object and wrote myObject. I'd expect a list of properties to show. This should be the case for other things like typing methods but they don't work either.

I was wondering whether there was a setting I'd changed by accident.

I'm using WinXP and VS 2008 Pro.

Thank you in advance.

EDIT
After search for Intellisense, I looked in the options>Business Intelligence Designer and got this message, An error occurred while loading this property page.

Any ideas.

RE-EDIT
I thought I would try reinstalling VS but neither Window Add/Remove or the DVD disk will uninstall it. An error pops up saying something like the program encountered an error, cancelling setup.

Answer 1

Assuming you have C# code. In VS 2008 go to Tools-Options-Text Editor (in tree)-C#-IntelliSense-> check Show completion list after a character is typed, and in the dialog box bellow have {}.,:;+-*/%&|^!~=<>?@#'"\

Answer 2

Various suggestions:

Try running VS from the commandline as devenv.exe /safemode to reset the settings.

Try deleting any .suo files in the project.

Go to Tools - Options - Text Editor - [Language] and check that the Statement Completion checkboxes are all set (pleaste note, don't have VS2008 in front of me so not certain that this path is exactly right).

Edit: It might also be worth trying to create a completely new project and see if it works then, that way you know if it's VS settings or your project files that's corrupted.

Edit 2: Regarding the uninstall failure, take a look at this KB article: Error message when you try to repair, uninstall, or install Visual Studio...

And since that article seems to indicate that you might not have installed any service pack for VS, that might be worth doing to see if it'll fix your Intellisense issue (and if it doesn't help, maybe a re-install might help).

Answer 3

Even when this problem seems to come from your local VS installation, I would suggest you a great friend of developers, who enhances the built-in Intellisense, and offers many other useful tools. His name is ReSharper

Hope that helps,

Answer 4

Sometimes the .ncb file associated with a project becomes corrupted, which can interfere with IntelliSense. Have you tried shutting down Visual Studio and deleting the .ncb file?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ks1ka3t6.aspx

Answer 5

try to log into windows using new user, may be some settings in your user profile have been damaged.

Answer 6

This sounds like a permanent condition, but I often had temporary conditions where IntelliSense refused to update (or quit working all-together) and I had to restart the IDE. After switching to Visual Studio 2010, Intellisense is great, though I had to upgrade my system to handle the extreme requirements to keep the IDE running smooth. Still, it occasionally gets confused for brief periods of time. I've not had to restart it.

Anyway, this is not helpful for a permanent problem of IntelliSense not working, but thought it might be for others with temporary problems.