At first I figured it was just VS being…well…a Microsoft product, combined with the HD issue. Then I decided to see if anyone else had issues and found this. Awesome. I can’t say I had the problem they had (definitely not 15 minutes) but (so far) it seems like it works.

In case the link goes dead, all they did was go to Tools > Import and Export Settings and select the Reset option. It won’t affect add-ons, just the core MS stuff. You will have to go in and change some of your settings back but definitely do NOT try to re-import your saved settings.

I guess the settings get bogged down or some setting gets set without your permission? I’m guessing here…after all, Microsoft products will let software installs to update your registry and other settings on your machine but if you try to do something, it’s all User Account Control, bitch!!

Whatever…suffice it to say, software and OSes developers need a swift kick once in a while to wake them up to their laziness and fragmentation (of teams). Or maybe I need to upgrade to VS 2008 before 2010 comes out…I can’t help it that Microsoft has trained me to stick with what works rather than upgrade to the latest and greatest. Every buggy, overpriced, and fundamentally different (in a bad way) new piece of software just turns me off the “arms race” of keeping up with the latest software.

I get that they need to make money and update the technology but really? I was just thinking about how much I hate the fact that we have to still support IE 7 (and are only just kicking IE6 out like a 20-something kid that needs to get a job). If it wasn’t for the whole software lifecycle process that Microsoft has (anyone notice how FireFox 2 just got it’s ass kicked and that was it?!?), we could be just worrying about IE8 which actually works almost like FF so there’s less of this BS I need to do to support both of them. One stylesheet for both browsers!

Anyhow, enjoy the tip above if it helps you…unless of course you’ve upgraded already and are enjoying the benefits (or trials?) of using VS 2008 or the 2010 rc.

out