Muck Ficrosoft.
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So after months of trying to get Visual Studio 2008 Express to install correctly I finally gave up and bought the retail Standard Edition. It installed beautifully, no errors, no blue screens - that's a first for any MS product since Win2K RC2. Good jobs boys and girls! :-D So I happily opened the program tonight, ready to start reading up on the new features and planning several apps I need for work. What could go wrong? It installed correctly without a single error, and I checked all the installation logs, just to be sure - all perfect. A click on Help, and I'm off... to nowhere. :sigh: Page cannot be displayed - i.e. 404 error - the same thing I got with every attempt to install the Express edition. I've spent the entire evening trying to find a solution to this without success, and calling support isn't an option - microsoft supports nothing. I can't think of any product made anywhere in the world that has no support, at least for a limited time. Only MS gets away with this kind of wholesale theft and fraud. I don't understand why they're still in business... I apologize for my obvious frustration, but I'm at wits end. Can anyone shed some light on what the problem might be? Believe me, I've been through every related article on TechNet and MSDN, tried them all, and nothing has worked. Buying a Mac isn't a solution, though it's tempting. I can't afford one, and the company is exclusively Microsoft oriented...:mad:
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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So after months of trying to get Visual Studio 2008 Express to install correctly I finally gave up and bought the retail Standard Edition. It installed beautifully, no errors, no blue screens - that's a first for any MS product since Win2K RC2. Good jobs boys and girls! :-D So I happily opened the program tonight, ready to start reading up on the new features and planning several apps I need for work. What could go wrong? It installed correctly without a single error, and I checked all the installation logs, just to be sure - all perfect. A click on Help, and I'm off... to nowhere. :sigh: Page cannot be displayed - i.e. 404 error - the same thing I got with every attempt to install the Express edition. I've spent the entire evening trying to find a solution to this without success, and calling support isn't an option - microsoft supports nothing. I can't think of any product made anywhere in the world that has no support, at least for a limited time. Only MS gets away with this kind of wholesale theft and fraud. I don't understand why they're still in business... I apologize for my obvious frustration, but I'm at wits end. Can anyone shed some light on what the problem might be? Believe me, I've been through every related article on TechNet and MSDN, tried them all, and nothing has worked. Buying a Mac isn't a solution, though it's tempting. I can't afford one, and the company is exclusively Microsoft oriented...:mad:
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Was there a separate install for MSDN that you might have skipped? It's been a few months since last i installed one of these products, but i seem to recall it being a separate installation at one point. Otherwise... Just google MSDN. That's what i end up doing 99% of the time anyway, especially since Firefox loads the pages faster than the IE engine built into the help viewer.
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You're right. These facts that you've laid out totally contradict the wild ramblings that I pulled off the back of cornflakes packets.
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Was there a separate install for MSDN that you might have skipped? It's been a few months since last i installed one of these products, but i seem to recall it being a separate installation at one point. Otherwise... Just google MSDN. That's what i end up doing 99% of the time anyway, especially since Firefox loads the pages faster than the IE engine built into the help viewer.
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You're right. These facts that you've laid out totally contradict the wild ramblings that I pulled off the back of cornflakes packets.
Shog9 wrote:
Was there a separate install for MSDN
Yup. Did that. And I tried reinstalling Document Explorer 8, as well. Neither helped.
Shog9 wrote:
Just google MSDN
Did that, too. No joy... The MS search engine is useless, as always, but Google always finds goodies that MS would rather hide, I think. None of the links helped, though..
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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Shog9 wrote:
Was there a separate install for MSDN
Yup. Did that. And I tried reinstalling Document Explorer 8, as well. Neither helped.
Shog9 wrote:
Just google MSDN
Did that, too. No joy... The MS search engine is useless, as always, but Google always finds goodies that MS would rather hide, I think. None of the links helped, though..
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
What URL does the Help program display?
Todd Smith
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So after months of trying to get Visual Studio 2008 Express to install correctly I finally gave up and bought the retail Standard Edition. It installed beautifully, no errors, no blue screens - that's a first for any MS product since Win2K RC2. Good jobs boys and girls! :-D So I happily opened the program tonight, ready to start reading up on the new features and planning several apps I need for work. What could go wrong? It installed correctly without a single error, and I checked all the installation logs, just to be sure - all perfect. A click on Help, and I'm off... to nowhere. :sigh: Page cannot be displayed - i.e. 404 error - the same thing I got with every attempt to install the Express edition. I've spent the entire evening trying to find a solution to this without success, and calling support isn't an option - microsoft supports nothing. I can't think of any product made anywhere in the world that has no support, at least for a limited time. Only MS gets away with this kind of wholesale theft and fraud. I don't understand why they're still in business... I apologize for my obvious frustration, but I'm at wits end. Can anyone shed some light on what the problem might be? Believe me, I've been through every related article on TechNet and MSDN, tried them all, and nothing has worked. Buying a Mac isn't a solution, though it's tempting. I can't afford one, and the company is exclusively Microsoft oriented...:mad:
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Roger Wright wrote:
click on Help
There's you problem, right there. Don't Do It. Use the googlenet for all your help needs - the MS Help in VS is just tooooo Damn Slooooow and doesn't run in a separate thread - so while it's searching your stuck waiting for it. (caveat - I haven't actually used the help in 2008, so I may be wrong here - but got out of the practice in 2005 after spending minutes waiting for the stupid help to come up and tell me nothing - especially frustrating when all you did was press F1 by mistake!) mismatched bracket
Take a chill pill, Daddy-o .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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What URL does the Help program display?
Todd Smith
The opening link is: ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/MS.MSDNQTR.v90.en/dv_vstoc/html/06ddebea-2c83-4a45-bb48-6264c797ed93.htm I have no idea how to trace it. All I get is a File Not Found, or Action Cancelled message, and nothing helpful for debugging.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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So after months of trying to get Visual Studio 2008 Express to install correctly I finally gave up and bought the retail Standard Edition. It installed beautifully, no errors, no blue screens - that's a first for any MS product since Win2K RC2. Good jobs boys and girls! :-D So I happily opened the program tonight, ready to start reading up on the new features and planning several apps I need for work. What could go wrong? It installed correctly without a single error, and I checked all the installation logs, just to be sure - all perfect. A click on Help, and I'm off... to nowhere. :sigh: Page cannot be displayed - i.e. 404 error - the same thing I got with every attempt to install the Express edition. I've spent the entire evening trying to find a solution to this without success, and calling support isn't an option - microsoft supports nothing. I can't think of any product made anywhere in the world that has no support, at least for a limited time. Only MS gets away with this kind of wholesale theft and fraud. I don't understand why they're still in business... I apologize for my obvious frustration, but I'm at wits end. Can anyone shed some light on what the problem might be? Believe me, I've been through every related article on TechNet and MSDN, tried them all, and nothing has worked. Buying a Mac isn't a solution, though it's tempting. I can't afford one, and the company is exclusively Microsoft oriented...:mad:
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Poor Roger...you've been screwing around with this for a long time. I agree with Shog though, there was definitely a whole other install for the help system. The first time you try to run help, it does this indexing thing: 'Preparing help file for first use' type of message with a progressbar in a box...did you at least get that? Can you run the help separately: Start-->Programs-->VS2008-->'Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Documentation'? Might it be permissions on your hard disk...are you 'Administrator'? Have you tried 'taking ownership' for your logged in account in the security settings? Does it have to be Windows 2003 Server?...can you get XP Pro Service Pack 2 or (shudder) Vista? Have you tried going Start-->Run, type 'devenv /setup' in the box and go OK...this resets everything. Maybe there's some crap left in the registry from your Express attempts? If it was me...I would boot a floppy and go FORMAT C: /U and start totally fresh.
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Roger Wright wrote:
click on Help
There's you problem, right there. Don't Do It. Use the googlenet for all your help needs - the MS Help in VS is just tooooo Damn Slooooow and doesn't run in a separate thread - so while it's searching your stuck waiting for it. (caveat - I haven't actually used the help in 2008, so I may be wrong here - but got out of the practice in 2005 after spending minutes waiting for the stupid help to come up and tell me nothing - especially frustrating when all you did was press F1 by mistake!) mismatched bracket
Take a chill pill, Daddy-o .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
My Internet connection is so unreliable that I really need local help. Besides, I paid for the damned thing - it ought to work.:mad:
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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The opening link is: ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/MS.MSDNQTR.v90.en/dv_vstoc/html/06ddebea-2c83-4a45-bb48-6264c797ed93.htm I have no idea how to trace it. All I get is a File Not Found, or Action Cancelled message, and nothing helpful for debugging.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
If you have ActiveX controls turned off or blocked, try turning them on or un-blocking them...that url worked for me but wants ActiveX. For that matter...do you have any fancy blocking software or anti-virus stuff running that might interfere?...if yes, maybe try disabling your anti-virus for the install of MSDN?
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Poor Roger...you've been screwing around with this for a long time. I agree with Shog though, there was definitely a whole other install for the help system. The first time you try to run help, it does this indexing thing: 'Preparing help file for first use' type of message with a progressbar in a box...did you at least get that? Can you run the help separately: Start-->Programs-->VS2008-->'Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Documentation'? Might it be permissions on your hard disk...are you 'Administrator'? Have you tried 'taking ownership' for your logged in account in the security settings? Does it have to be Windows 2003 Server?...can you get XP Pro Service Pack 2 or (shudder) Vista? Have you tried going Start-->Run, type 'devenv /setup' in the box and go OK...this resets everything. Maybe there's some crap left in the registry from your Express attempts? If it was me...I would boot a floppy and go FORMAT C: /U and start totally fresh.
David Lockwood wrote:
The first time you try to run help, it does this indexing thing
No.
David Lockwood wrote:
Start-->Programs-->VS2008-->'Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Documentation'?
Same symptoms... Action Cancelled
David Lockwood wrote:
are you 'Administrator'
Yes.
David Lockwood wrote:
Does it have to be Windows 2003 Server?
For now, yes. It's all I have. I have a few licences left of Win XP, but I dread downgrading. I did try to copy Documents and Settings to another drive, just in case... It didn't work because there's a file in there that Windows is using.
David Lockwood wrote:
'devenv /setup'
I'm trying that next; if you never hear from me again, thank you for trying... Here goes.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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If you have ActiveX controls turned off or blocked, try turning them on or un-blocking them...that url worked for me but wants ActiveX. For that matter...do you have any fancy blocking software or anti-virus stuff running that might interfere?...if yes, maybe try disabling your anti-virus for the install of MSDN?
David Lockwood wrote:
disabling your anti-virus for the install of MSDN
I'll give it a try... though it's never interfered with anything before... And there are no error messages in real-time or the logs.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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David Lockwood wrote:
disabling your anti-virus for the install of MSDN
I'll give it a try... though it's never interfered with anything before... And there are no error messages in real-time or the logs.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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So after months of trying to get Visual Studio 2008 Express to install correctly I finally gave up and bought the retail Standard Edition. It installed beautifully, no errors, no blue screens - that's a first for any MS product since Win2K RC2. Good jobs boys and girls! :-D So I happily opened the program tonight, ready to start reading up on the new features and planning several apps I need for work. What could go wrong? It installed correctly without a single error, and I checked all the installation logs, just to be sure - all perfect. A click on Help, and I'm off... to nowhere. :sigh: Page cannot be displayed - i.e. 404 error - the same thing I got with every attempt to install the Express edition. I've spent the entire evening trying to find a solution to this without success, and calling support isn't an option - microsoft supports nothing. I can't think of any product made anywhere in the world that has no support, at least for a limited time. Only MS gets away with this kind of wholesale theft and fraud. I don't understand why they're still in business... I apologize for my obvious frustration, but I'm at wits end. Can anyone shed some light on what the problem might be? Believe me, I've been through every related article on TechNet and MSDN, tried them all, and nothing has worked. Buying a Mac isn't a solution, though it's tempting. I can't afford one, and the company is exclusively Microsoft oriented...:mad:
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Your help startup page that doesn't load was: ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/MS.MSDNQTR.v90.en/dv_vstoc/html/06ddebea-2c83-4a45-bb48-6264c797ed93.htm My Help startup page is: ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/dv_vscccommon/html/05f46ffd-ff64-4c94-a0fc-bb665d74d24d.htm I'm running VStudio 2008 Service Pack 1 (you might try that too...maybe they fixed your bug). If you run REGEDIT and go to key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSDN\9.0\WebBrowser ...you can find the startup page of your Help system...maybe try changing it like mine for laughs.
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So after months of trying to get Visual Studio 2008 Express to install correctly I finally gave up and bought the retail Standard Edition. It installed beautifully, no errors, no blue screens - that's a first for any MS product since Win2K RC2. Good jobs boys and girls! :-D So I happily opened the program tonight, ready to start reading up on the new features and planning several apps I need for work. What could go wrong? It installed correctly without a single error, and I checked all the installation logs, just to be sure - all perfect. A click on Help, and I'm off... to nowhere. :sigh: Page cannot be displayed - i.e. 404 error - the same thing I got with every attempt to install the Express edition. I've spent the entire evening trying to find a solution to this without success, and calling support isn't an option - microsoft supports nothing. I can't think of any product made anywhere in the world that has no support, at least for a limited time. Only MS gets away with this kind of wholesale theft and fraud. I don't understand why they're still in business... I apologize for my obvious frustration, but I'm at wits end. Can anyone shed some light on what the problem might be? Believe me, I've been through every related article on TechNet and MSDN, tried them all, and nothing has worked. Buying a Mac isn't a solution, though it's tempting. I can't afford one, and the company is exclusively Microsoft oriented...:mad:
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Too bad, buying a Mac has solved most of my issues.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. "Iam doing the browsing center project in vb.net using c# coding" - this is why I don't answer questions much anymore. Oh, and Microsoft doesn't want me to.
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My Internet connection is so unreliable that I really need local help. Besides, I paid for the damned thing - it ought to work.:mad:
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Roger Wright wrote:
I paid for the damned thing - it ought to work.
I completely agree. But, most of the things that I pay for - they just don't work. It's a fact. You've to live with it. :) PS: See my sig.
It is a crappy thing, but it's life -^ Carlo Pallini
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David Lockwood wrote:
The first time you try to run help, it does this indexing thing
No.
David Lockwood wrote:
Start-->Programs-->VS2008-->'Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Documentation'?
Same symptoms... Action Cancelled
David Lockwood wrote:
are you 'Administrator'
Yes.
David Lockwood wrote:
Does it have to be Windows 2003 Server?
For now, yes. It's all I have. I have a few licences left of Win XP, but I dread downgrading. I did try to copy Documents and Settings to another drive, just in case... It didn't work because there's a file in there that Windows is using.
David Lockwood wrote:
'devenv /setup'
I'm trying that next; if you never hear from me again, thank you for trying... Here goes.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Roger Wright wrote:
For now, yes. It's all I have. I have a few licences left of Win XP, but I dread downgrading. I did try to copy Documents and Settings to another drive, just in case... It didn't work because there's a file in there that Windows is using.
You could try making a fresh virtual machine with XP on it, and do all the installs on that... I have Visual Studio 6, Visual Studio 2003, Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008 and MSDN on the same installation of XP and they all work OK...
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Too bad, buying a Mac has solved most of my issues.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. "Iam doing the browsing center project in vb.net using c# coding" - this is why I don't answer questions much anymore. Oh, and Microsoft doesn't want me to.
-
So after months of trying to get Visual Studio 2008 Express to install correctly I finally gave up and bought the retail Standard Edition. It installed beautifully, no errors, no blue screens - that's a first for any MS product since Win2K RC2. Good jobs boys and girls! :-D So I happily opened the program tonight, ready to start reading up on the new features and planning several apps I need for work. What could go wrong? It installed correctly without a single error, and I checked all the installation logs, just to be sure - all perfect. A click on Help, and I'm off... to nowhere. :sigh: Page cannot be displayed - i.e. 404 error - the same thing I got with every attempt to install the Express edition. I've spent the entire evening trying to find a solution to this without success, and calling support isn't an option - microsoft supports nothing. I can't think of any product made anywhere in the world that has no support, at least for a limited time. Only MS gets away with this kind of wholesale theft and fraud. I don't understand why they're still in business... I apologize for my obvious frustration, but I'm at wits end. Can anyone shed some light on what the problem might be? Believe me, I've been through every related article on TechNet and MSDN, tried them all, and nothing has worked. Buying a Mac isn't a solution, though it's tempting. I can't afford one, and the company is exclusively Microsoft oriented...:mad:
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
I've just noticed that you're running on Windows 2003. Do you by any chance have that feature which blocks all but trusted sites through IE? Protected mode or something? Although I'd expect that to pop up a message relating to that topic. I'll fire up a VM and see if I can install my copy of VS2008 onto it.
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So after months of trying to get Visual Studio 2008 Express to install correctly I finally gave up and bought the retail Standard Edition. It installed beautifully, no errors, no blue screens - that's a first for any MS product since Win2K RC2. Good jobs boys and girls! :-D So I happily opened the program tonight, ready to start reading up on the new features and planning several apps I need for work. What could go wrong? It installed correctly without a single error, and I checked all the installation logs, just to be sure - all perfect. A click on Help, and I'm off... to nowhere. :sigh: Page cannot be displayed - i.e. 404 error - the same thing I got with every attempt to install the Express edition. I've spent the entire evening trying to find a solution to this without success, and calling support isn't an option - microsoft supports nothing. I can't think of any product made anywhere in the world that has no support, at least for a limited time. Only MS gets away with this kind of wholesale theft and fraud. I don't understand why they're still in business... I apologize for my obvious frustration, but I'm at wits end. Can anyone shed some light on what the problem might be? Believe me, I've been through every related article on TechNet and MSDN, tried them all, and nothing has worked. Buying a Mac isn't a solution, though it's tempting. I can't afford one, and the company is exclusively Microsoft oriented...:mad:
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Hey man, this is the lounge! Look elsewhere (and also do not whine about 1-votes, I made that mistake yesterday! :laugh:) Did you check the event log for messages?
Wout
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So after months of trying to get Visual Studio 2008 Express to install correctly I finally gave up and bought the retail Standard Edition. It installed beautifully, no errors, no blue screens - that's a first for any MS product since Win2K RC2. Good jobs boys and girls! :-D So I happily opened the program tonight, ready to start reading up on the new features and planning several apps I need for work. What could go wrong? It installed correctly without a single error, and I checked all the installation logs, just to be sure - all perfect. A click on Help, and I'm off... to nowhere. :sigh: Page cannot be displayed - i.e. 404 error - the same thing I got with every attempt to install the Express edition. I've spent the entire evening trying to find a solution to this without success, and calling support isn't an option - microsoft supports nothing. I can't think of any product made anywhere in the world that has no support, at least for a limited time. Only MS gets away with this kind of wholesale theft and fraud. I don't understand why they're still in business... I apologize for my obvious frustration, but I'm at wits end. Can anyone shed some light on what the problem might be? Believe me, I've been through every related article on TechNet and MSDN, tried them all, and nothing has worked. Buying a Mac isn't a solution, though it's tempting. I can't afford one, and the company is exclusively Microsoft oriented...:mad:
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Help in the IDE is pointless. I never use it. I just use google.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001