'Change Source Control' Menu Disappears in Visual Studio
A reader recently emailed me the following issue/question:
"I recently installed the VS 2005 December CTP on a machine that also has VS 2003 installed. I uninstalled the CTP today and now my VS2003 'change source control' menu choice (from the file menu) has disappeared.
How do I get it back."
I've heard about this problem before and as I recall, this is a VSS-specific issue. However, it could affect other source control providers as well. This post explains how to regain the ability to change source control (unbind solution/project, rebind, disconnect/remove from source control, etc) The issue occurs under the following conditions:
- You have Visual SourceSafe 6.0x and Visual Studio .NET 2002/2003 on your machine
- You install Visual Studio Whidbey 2005 CTP or beta AND you install Visual SourceSafe 2005.
- You uninstall VS2005 and/or SourceSafe2005.
Cause: SourceSafe 6.0x and SourceSafe 2005 cannot be installed side-by-side. When you install VSS 2005, it overwrites VSS 6.0x's registry settings.
To Fix: Re-register the integration dll (ssscc.dll) from the VSS 6.0x install, either by running regsvr32.exe (regsvr32 ssscc.dll) or by running ssint.exe provided with VSS6. If you're using VSS automation for FrontPage projects, you should also re-register the SSAPI.dll for IVSS interfaces.
I have not confirmed that these steps work as advertised so if the fix works (or does not work) for you, please drop a comment to let future readers know.