Upgrading Compact Framework 1 app from VS 2003 to VS 2005 breaks form designer?

Question

I am trying to move a C# Compact Framework 1 application from Visual Studio 2003 to Visual Studio 2005 (no comments please on how outdated all this is :-)). I am now able to compile and run the app in VS 2005 just fine, however when I open one of the forms, the form designer does not show the actual form layout but just some rows of icons, one for each control on the form. I have no idea why, or how to get back the standard form designer view. Does anybody have any experience with that and any hints or tips?

Answer 1

Well some things changed while going from VS2003 to VS2005 one of those things is the way the form designer adds code to your Form class. It creates a separate .designer.cs class and creates a partial class with the same name as you main form class. All the designer generated code now goes in this background class. This is done so that the form designer generated code stays out of your hair.

Now its plausible that the VS2005 designer no longer recognizes the in-file designer code generated by the previous version. You can try to create a new WinForms project and see how it differs from your current project then make appropriate amends to your current project.