VS2008 devenv not closing, keeping files from being built?

Question

Hey guys, have you guys run into this behavior, and if so, how have you gotten around it?

Basically, what's happening is this: I'll have a VS2008 instance running, pop into another VS project in a new instance, and then close the new instance. After that, every once in a while VS will complain that "File is open in another window, would you like to close it?". Clicking yes doesn't do anything; I can't open the file in the editor.

What's infinitely worse is that, any files which would display that behavior (which maybe ones I don't know about) seem to not get built. The assembly just straight up doesn't include the classes which are displaying the issue.

I've noticed that when I close VS there're still instances of devenv.exe running; when I kill them in Process Explorer, the issues seem to disappear, so it seems to me that they're keeping file handles open.

I'd love to be able to trust my environment a little more than I can right now...

Any suggestions?

PS - I have the VimEmu installed, and that's the only plugin.

Answer 1

The obvious question: Have you tried to uninstall/disable the 3rd party plugin to see if that changes anything?

Answer 2

One thing you can try to get around the issue (so you don't have to close down) is to run unlocker on the affected files.

http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

It is a free tool that allows you to see what has a files locked and then can force an unlock.

Not a fix for your issue, but it maybe a work around.

As a side note when I change a file in a second instance of Visual Studio I get this message:

This File has been modified outside of the Source Editor.

Do you want to reload it?