As expected (wait a second, does that mean Microsoft actually stuck to the announced release schedule? I guess they did...) the first Service Pack for Visual Studio 2005 was released at the end of last week. From the Visual Studio Developer Center web site you can get to the download links for the different Visual Studio Editions (including Express) as well as the Service Pack for Team Foundation Server (TFS) which was released at the same time.
Update: While trying to find more information on the actual bugs that have been fixed in the Service Pack I stumbled over Leslie Giblett's blog post, which provides details on bug fixes for the IDE, the Compiler Back End and Front End, as well as for the Libraries.
Update 2: A more recent and official knowledge base article with bug fixes for Service Pack 1 has been released as well as the Service Pack 1 Update Beta for Windows Vista.
For Windows Vista users there will be a separate service pack to address certain compatibility issues with Visual Studio 2005, and a beta version for that update will be made available over the next couple of days. The final version of the update is expected shortly after the consumer launch of Windows Vista at the end of January 2007.
Note 1: The service pack also includes an update for the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System (which you can install separately or might have installed as part of Visual Studio Team Suite or Developer Edition). This portion of the service pack will alert you to uninstall the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Web Application Projects hot fix if it is installed. The Web Application Project update was available as a separate hot fix for Visual Studio 2005 and is not automatically uninstalled or updated by the service pack, it has to be uninstalled manually. Unfortunately, since the service pack for Tools for Office is separate from the service pack for Visual Studio 2005 even with a failure it will continue and launch the installer for the Visual Studio service pack. I canceled that and uninstalled the Web Application Project hot fix first before running the installer again.
Note 2: When trying to install the Service Pack I got the following message: "Error 1718. File <tempfile> did not pass the digital signature check. For more information about a possible resolution for this problem, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=73863." The knowledge base says it has something to do with not enough memory being available to verify the MSI installer package. If you are affected by this, follow the link to see instructions for a workaround. The workaround did not work for me, but re-downloading the 430 MB Service Pack worked. Other things I did was close out all programs and disable any virus scanner during the installation.
Note 3: The installation takes really long with very little feedback! The installation screen would sit there saying "0 seconds remaining" for 15 minutes without any visible action, but eventually it will continue. Also, since the update for Tools for Office is a separate upgrade, there will be two prompts, one to tell you that the update installed successfully, and one to kick off the update for Visual Studio 2005 (therefore letting the update run unattended is only possible if you check in between updates). The Tools for Office update took about 15 minutes on my system (with no other programs running!), the second one another 30 minutes.
Considering the size and time it takes to install the service pack it would probably be a good idea to follow Heath Stewart's instructions on Slipstreaming Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 so that future installations of Visual Studio automatically include the service pack.
posted @ Monday, December 18, 2006 12:23 PM