Has anyone managed to get Visual Studio 2003 running on Windows 7?

Question

Yes, I know... I could set up a virtual machine running XP. Unfortunately our build environment is such that we need to be running VC2003, 2005 and 2008 concurrently and it would be much more convenient if I could run 2003 natively on Windows 7 for the few projects we have that require it.

I realize some things may not be available in the IDE, but I was able to run 2003 under windows Vista and if I could get the same base level of functionality under Windows 7 I would be extremely happy.

Right now I get an error opening the *.pdb file when I compile after switching vc2003 to run as Administrator under compatibility mode for XP SP 2.

Thanks!

Answer 1

I'm sorry, your build environment requires you to have VC 2003, 2005, AND 2008 running concurrently? I would really bet that your efforts would be better spent simply consolidating your build environment to just one environment.

Answer 2

Have you considered upgrading your solutions to vs2005, using MSBEE to target .net 1.1?

Answer 3

Give XP Mode a try if you can't get it to run natively.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

Answer 4

In windows 7, there is the compatabiliy mode in the executable properties. open:C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Common7\IDE\ then right click on the devenv.exe and select properties. In the compatability tab, select the "Run in compatability mode" and select "Windows XP" in the dropdown.

Try that, I am not sure if it works, but it is worth a shot.

Answer 5

I have attempted to install VS2003 on Windows 7 64-bit using the Virtual Windows XP feature. I'm reasonably certain that this will be successful. The issue I ran into is that the installer wants IIS installed, and the XP installation provided by the Virtual XP doesn't have that enabled by default.

If you go to Add/Remove components, and try to add it, it will ask for the disc, which I didn't have on hand. Once I get my hands on the disc, I'm pretty sure that it will run fine.

If you haven't tried it for other apps, the Virtual XP feature is really neat...

Answer 6

I have a really dirty and pathetic workaround for the pdb problem.

Download and run Sysinternals-ProceXP, press CTRL-F enter the name of pdb(smt like ($ProjectName).pdb) that can't be created while linking. Double click when it is found.(if it can't be found run procexp with administrator priviliges)

Then you will see that the .pdb file is highlighted in the lower pane of the main screen. Right click it and select Close Handle. When you retry building your solution it wont raise an error.

I dont know if this solution can be scripted but it is at least better than restarting visual studio.

Answer 7

Solution i found on the web which helped: For your visual studio, use application compatibility = windows vista SP2, and NOT WinXP SP3

Answer 8

Problems:
I have tried to use "External Tools" like Doxygen using Ouput Window and it crashed several times. I tried to use the "Find in Files" function, it also crashed.

Solution:
If your switch your Window 7 design to classic Windows design only during the work with Visual Studio 2003 everything works fine. Visual Studio 2003 seems to be buggy with Aero design.

Answer 9

I am experiencing the same issue; devenv.exe is leaving pdb files open after running the project. I have made a batch file to work around it, it closes all .pdb files open by devenv.exe:

handle.exe .pdb | awk "/devenv.exe/ { split($4, fd, \":\"); system(\"handle.exe -c \" fd[1] \" -y -p \" $3)}"

You will need to have handle.exe by sysinternals and awk by gnu in your path to make it work.

Use at your own risk. Closing handles can cause application or system instability.

Answer 10

I've been using Visual studio 2003 on win7 since the very first RC edition was released :S why do people have issues?

Answer 11

I wrote a blog entry about this a while back that you can check out - http://technikhil.wordpress.com/2010/01/12/visual-studio-2003-and-windows-7-can-get-along-really/

The only thing I am stuck on right now is the global search functionality of VS 2003 - it hangs the application. My workaround is to use windows 7 search :-). Other than that - so far so good...

Update: I got the search to work as well by disabling the Aero functionality - I have updated my blog post with the details...

Answer 12

I am having no problems with Visual Studio 2003 on Windows 7 64-bit.

1. Navigate to VS2003 devenv.exe (probably C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe)
2. Right-click and select Properties
3. In the Compatibility tab, check "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" and select "Windows XP (Service Pack 3)"
4. Check "Run this program as administrator"

Answer 13

I am experiencing the same issue; devenv.exe is leaving pdb files open after running the project. I have made a batch file to work around it, it closes all .pdb files open by devenv.exe:

handle.exe .pdb | awk "/devenv.exe/ { split($4, fd, \":\");

system(\"handle.exe -c \" fd[1] \" -y -p \" $3)}"

This seems to be the best solution. Note that you should first check "Run this program as administrator" in compatibility properties of devenv.exe, if UAC is on.