Summary: using the VS 2005 beta cleanup tool to prepare a machine to use VS 2005 beta 2

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I have posted bits and pieces of information in different blog posts about the issues we have found on customer machines during the process of removing VS 2005 and .NET Framework 2.0 beta 1 and installing VS 2005 and .NET Framework 2.0 beta 2. I wanted to write an overall summary that explained all of the issues and outlined how and when to use the beta cleanup tool in one place now that things have settled down a little bit and we have discovered most of the major issues and added steps to the cleanup tool to address them.

Information about the VS 2005 beta cleanup tool

  1. What is the cleanup tool?

    The VS 2005 beta cleanup tool is an automated tool that is designed to resolve common issues seen by customers while trying to uninstall VS 2005 and .NET Framework beta 1 or Community Tech Previews (CTPs) and install VS 2005 and .NET Framework beta 2. It automates the officially published uninstall steps for Express Editions and for other versions of VS. It also automates cleanup of various files and registry keys that are known to cause problems if beta 1 or a CTP has already been uninstalled in a different order different than the uninstall steps describe.

  2. Where can I find the cleanup tool?

    The VS 2005 beta cleanup tool can be downloaded from this location. It is packaged as a ZIP file, and the tool itself is a self-extracting EXE inside of the ZIP file. If future problems are found and the tool has to be revised, it will be updated and made available at the same download location.

  3. How can I run the cleanup tool in silent mode with no UI?

    If you want to run the cleanup tool silently and avoid displaying any UI to the user, you can do the following:

    • Download vs2005_beta_cleanup_tool.zip
    • Extract vs2005_beta_cleanup_tool.exe from inside the ZIP package
    • Run the following command line: vs2005_beta_cleanup_tool.exe /c:"cleanup.exe /p Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1"
    • The cleanup tool will produce log files in the %temp% folder named cleanup_actions.log, cleanup_errors.log and cleanup_main.log
    • Return code 0 indicates that the cleanup tool ran successfully; return code 3010 indicates that the cleanup tool ran successfully and the computer needs to reboot to complete removing files or folders that were in-use; any other non-zero return code indicates that the cleanup tool encountered an error

  4. What if the cleanup tool does not solve my problem?

  5. Why doesn't VS 2005 uninstall and reinstall work as expected?

    In most cases, we have found that .NET Framework 2.0 beta 1 was uninstalled before trying to uninstall VS 2005 beta 1. If that happens, VS 2005 beta 1 uninstall fails to remove assemblies from the GAC because it needs the .NET Framework 2.0 beta 1 in order to perform GAC uninstallation.

    In other cases, we have seen Package Load Failures for Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.TestCaseManagement.QualityToolsPackage when launching the VS IDE. This will occur if you uncheck the Team Foundation Client feature in the setup tree. This can be fixed by re-running setup and adding the Team Foundation Client feature.