Async CTP Refresh - Installation

Async CTP Refresh - installation

The Async CTP Refresh was announced on 13th April 2011. It includes Visual Studio 2010 SP1 compatibility, enables Windows Phone 7 development, has a new EULA with updates regarding usage in production environments, and is compatible with non-English installations of Visual Studio and with Visual Studio Express.

 

The Async CTP Refresh has installed cleanly for most people. But we have had reports of a few problems. Here's some trouble-shooting for the installation process.

FIRST: If you had previously installed the first Async CTP, first uninstall it before installing the Refresh.
(Uninstall may ask for your original VS2010 installation media, and will probably need a reboot).

Set aside some time. This is how long it took me with a superfast internet connection and SSD hard drive:

COMMON FIX: A fix for most installation problems is (1) uninstall Async CTP, then (2) reinstall it.

To uninstall the Async CTP:

  • Go to Start > ControlPanel > Uninstall > Updates
  • Search for all the updates with "Async" in their names
  • And uninstall them. There may be 1, 2 or 3 updates to uninstall - about 30 minutes on my machine.

 

A quick check that the Async CTP Refresh has installed correctly

If you suspect there's something wrong with your installation of the Async CTP, then please check the version information of these four files. (Please check all four of them, even if you're not doing C# or VB or Phone development!)

  • 1. C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\Framework\v4.0.30319\csc.exe
  • 2. C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\Framework\v4.0.30319\vbc.exe
  • 3. C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\msvbide.dll
  • 4. My Documents\Microsoft Visual Studio Async CTP\Samples\AsyncCtpLibrary_Phone.dll

If you see the following version numbers, then the Async CTP Refresh has been correctly installed:

 

csc.exe

vbc.exe

msvbide.dll

AsyncCTPLibrary_Phone.dll

CTP-Refresh

4.0.30319.440

10.0.30319.440

 4.0.40219.15

 1.0.0.0

 

Q. How to find those version numbers? A. Right-click on each file and choose Properties; the version number is in the "Details" tab.

   

 

 

If the version numbers are incorrect:

Here are the other version numbers you might find.

csc.exe

vbc.exe

msvbide.dll

AsyncCTPLibrary_Phone.dlll

VS2010

4.0.30319.1

10.0.30319.1

10.0.30319.1

absent

Async CTP 1

4.0.30319.326

10.0.30319.326

10.0.30319.326

absent

VS2010 SP1

4.0.30319.1

10.0.30319.22510.0.30319.431

10.0.40219.1

absent

Async CTP Refresh

4.0.30319.440

10.0.30319.440

10.0.40219.15

1.0.0.0

 

Please verify that all four version numbers are correctly that of the Async CTP Refresh. If they're not, then you should uninstall+reinstall:

COMMON FIX: A fix for most installation problems is (1) uninstall Async CTP, then (2) reinstall it.

I want to stress this: you should check the version numbers of all four files. Even if you think you're not going to use C#, say, you should still check all four files including csc.exe. Any discrepancy in any of the files will indicate your machine is in an incorrect state, and you should uninstall then reinstall.

 

If the installer says "You need SP1" but you already have SP1

There's a bug in the Async Installer to do with Express versions of VS. The situation: if you have VS Express with SP1, and try to install the Async CTP, then it will complain that SP1 isn't installed. The workaround is to temporarily add a key to the registry. Details here:
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/async/thread/356cbf95-11ab-44d6-bea2-f2682ccb7b8e

 

If the "Phone" samples fail to load

If you don't have the Windows Phone Dev Tools installed, then the Phone samples will fail to load in VS.

The fix is the same as always:

Note that the order here is important! The Async CTP must be uninstalled before you do anything else. The phone tools must be installed before SP1. The Async CTP must come last.

 

 

If the "Phone" samples cause VS to crash when you try to load them

If you don't have the VB For Windows Phone installed, then the VB Phone samples will crash VS when you try to load them.

In this case you can get by with a much easier fix:

 

 

If the version numbers are CORRECT but you get errors in VS

Some users have reported that the four version numbers are all correct, but they still get squiggly underlines within Visual Studio.

This is typically due to a third-party extension which is not aware of the new async keywords.

 

 

If you still have errors

Please post a request for help in the Async Discussion Forums. We do monitor those forums frequently, and we may be able to help.

When you ask for help, PLEASE mention all four file version numbers. That will help!

 

PS. Many thanks to Jaap Suter for spotting a typo in the version tables.