Visual Studio 2008 and Multi-Monitor-Setups
Very recently my Visual Studio 2008 started to show some strange behaviour:
After moving docking / dockable tool windows to my second screen and arranging them there, I hit F5 to run/debug the application. This caused VS to crash and lose all IDE layout changes I had made so far. Reciprocally, changing the layout while debugging, then ending debug mode, results in the same error. I guess this must mean that the error arises when storing the IDE Layout for later retrieval. This behaviour is 100% reproducible.
The problem seems to be a well-known one in the Microsoft Development department, but no one seems eager enough to fix it, as a list of unresolved issues at Connect show (see here,here,here or here).
After Google did not provide me with a solution, I went on searching by myself, and the very first thing my Windows XP event log hinted me to was the failing component here, msenv.dll. Depending on your System, there are multiple flavours of that file installed (e.g. for VS2005, VS2008, Office11,...).
After some testing around (exchanging DLLs to ensure correct loading), I finally copied the version located at "/program files/commonfiles/microsoft shared/Help 9" to "$VS2008INSTALLDIR$/Common7/IDE", and finally can work properly again.
I draw the conclusion that my msenv.dll has been compromised, but how, by what and why?
What an ugly way of solving things...
Please note that I have posted this article before, on my private blog.
After moving docking / dockable tool windows to my second screen and arranging them there, I hit F5 to run/debug the application. This caused VS to crash and lose all IDE layout changes I had made so far. Reciprocally, changing the layout while debugging, then ending debug mode, results in the same error. I guess this must mean that the error arises when storing the IDE Layout for later retrieval. This behaviour is 100% reproducible.
The problem seems to be a well-known one in the Microsoft Development department, but no one seems eager enough to fix it, as a list of unresolved issues at Connect show (see here,here,here or here).
After Google did not provide me with a solution, I went on searching by myself, and the very first thing my Windows XP event log hinted me to was the failing component here, msenv.dll. Depending on your System, there are multiple flavours of that file installed (e.g. for VS2005, VS2008, Office11,...).
After some testing around (exchanging DLLs to ensure correct loading), I finally copied the version located at "/program files/commonfiles/microsoft shared/Help 9" to "$VS2008INSTALLDIR$/Common7/IDE", and finally can work properly again.
I draw the conclusion that my msenv.dll has been compromised, but how, by what and why?
What an ugly way of solving things...
Please note that I have posted this article before, on my private blog.
There's word out there that ReSharper is the one fiddling with msenv.dll, I will try to check this later on. I rather doubt it - If I recall correctly, I have tested this behaviour without ANY 3rd party component being installed on the system.
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