Async CTP v3 – installation

The third version of the Async CTP was released on 31st October 2011.

The reason for releasing v3 is to address installation issues -- a recent Windows Update had conflicted with the Async CTP v2 and stopped it working, or prevented its installation in the first place. The v3 release also contains one small bugfix, to stop intermittent VB IDE crashes.

This post is to help with some common installation issues.

Run Windows Update before installing Async CTP v3, and get all updates (including Optional updates) from before October 2011

*** BUT NONE that came after. Three in particular, KB2635973 and KB2615527 and KB2645410, are known to be incompatible with Async CTP v3.

After installing Async CTP v3, then you can get subsequent updates.

Q. Why do we keep releasing updates of the Async CTP? This is the third version so far:

  • October 2010 – original Async CTP v1
  • April 2011 – Async CTP v2 (SP1 Refresh) , to make it compatible with SP1 of VS2010 and fix some bugs
  • October 2011 – Async CTP v3, to make it work with recent product updates

The reason is that Visual Studio and .NET4 keep being updated. The Async CTP is actually a mini-fork of VS2010. Therefore, each time there’s a Windows Update which includes changes to the VB or C# compilers, then the Async CTP gets out of date: the update will break the Async CTP if you have it on your machine, and it’ll block the Async CTP from being installed on top of it. So far these conflicting updates have been coming out about once every six months, and so we’ve had to re-release the Async CTP every six months.

Note: The Async CTP v3 can be installed over the top of Async CTP v2 (SP1 Refresh): you don’t need to uninstall it first.

 

 

A quick check that the Async CTP is working

If you suspect that something’s wrong with your installation of the Async CTP, then please check the version number of these four files. (Please check all four, 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

Async CTP v3

4.0.30319.517

10.0.30319.517

4.0.40219.355

1.1.0.0

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 some 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 v1

4.0.30319.326

10.0.30319.326

10.0.30319.326

absent

VS2010 SP1

4.0.30319.1

10.0.30319.225 10.0.30319.431

10.0.40219.1

absent

Windows Update or KB2468871 10.0.30319.233 10.0.30319.450
Async CTP v2 (SP1 Refresh) 4.0.30319.440 10.0.30319.440 10.0.40219.15 1.0.0.0

Async CTP v3

4.0.30319.517

10.0.30319.517

10.0.40219.355

1.1.0.0

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.

 

 

If Visual Studio crashes upon opening a VB/C# project

The issue is that VS2010 SP1 had a bug in NGEN. The Async CTP v3 requires that this bug have already been fixed – either by having Async CTP v2 already on the machine, or by running Windows Update and getting all updates including optional ones, or by manually installing KB2468871 .

Alternatively, if you’ve already got Async CTP v3 on your machine, you can fix the bug manually: open a Developer Command Prompt, run the following command in it, and have a nice cup of tea and biscuit because it’s going to take up to an hour:

ngen update /force

 

Uninstallation

To uninstall Async CTP v3

This is easy: Start > ControlPanel > UninstallPrograms > ViewUpdates, search for all updates with “async” in their title, and uninstall all of them. You might see as many as five different entries that need to be uninstalled.

TIP: Although uninstall order doesn’t matter, it goes easier if you uninstall the “Visual Studio Async” updates first and the “.NET Framework Async” updates next. That’s because the uninstalling the latter will require a reboot.

To uninstall Async CTP v2 (SP1 Refresh)

The uninstall of Async CTP v2 has become broken due to a conflicting Windows Update. If you have v2 on your machine and want to install it, then you actually have to install v3 first.

 

To uninstall Async CTP v1 (pre-SP1 release)

If anyone still has Async CTP v1 from October 2010: we recommend to uninstall this prior to installing SP1.

 

 

If you still have problems

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 version numbers. That will help!