Hi,

I'm just getting started with Visual Studio 2005, and I'm really confused about the toolbox... I opened up VS2k5 for the first time, selected a new web site, named it, and landed on the Default.aspx source view.  Everything was fine.  Then I switched to design view, and I get a General Tab, as well as a "HTML" tab.  So I say to myself, "where in god's green earth are my webcontrols?".  I tried to show all, but they're still disabled... am I missing something.

I know this is simple, I feel like a noob all over again.

Thanks for responding.  I agree with what you're saying, and I'm equally flustered.  No matter what view I switch to, I simply have "HTML" and "General" tabs in the toolbox.  General is empty, while HTML has the typical HTML controls you would expect to see.

Perhaps the installer failed to add in the appropriate DLLs or something, I have no idea.  I tried adding them manually into a tab of my own creation, but the environment just refreshes, but nothing happens.

If you have an HTML file open you will only see the HTML and General toolbox tabs.  You said you had default.aspx open so yes, you should see Standard, Validation, Navigation, Login, etc.  Do you see any package load errors when you start VS2005?

I would try two things.  First, make try New Web Site and choose a local file location.  If the tabs don't show up when default.aspx is open try right-clicking on the toolbox and choose 'Reset Toolbox'.  Second, I would try Tools | Import and Export Settings, and reset all settings to 'Web Development Settings' which will reset your toolbox and windows (you should save current settings just in case you want to go back).

Thanks,

Now we're getting somewhere.  When I went to import and export settings, I got a package load error: "Visual Studio VsSettings Package" has failed to load properly GUID = {F74C5077-D848-4630-80C9-B00E6A1CA0C}

Then it says something about no such interface being supported.

Is there anyway to fix this?

Cheers,

-A

The package load falure can be fixed by doing the following.

Make sure VS is not running.  Navigate to the %/windir%/assembly folder.  There are a number of assemblies with the same name.  Try deleting assemblies with duplicate names.  You can only delete/uninstall the one currently not being used.  After you delete duplicates, run VS Setup and choose the Reinstall/Repair option.  Restart and you should not see any package errors.

Hi,

Thanks.  I will try this.  Does this mean that I have to remove previous versions of the .NEt framework, or previous versions of the assemblies?  Or am I just removing duplicate assemblies that come from version 2.0?

I think it's removing duplicate assemblies created by installing the Framework, but it is not removing the entire Framework.  This is the less painful (meaning faster) way of fixing the problem.  You could Remove All, delete that whole directory, and reinstall, but it's probably not necessary.  I've seen Package Load Failure reports on the forums before, and the method of deleting duplicate assemblies and running Repair solves most of them.

danmor wrote:

The package load falure can be fixed by doing the following.

Make sure VS is not running.  Navigate to the %/windir%/assembly folder.  There are a number of assemblies with the same name.  Try deleting assemblies with duplicate names.  You can only delete/uninstall the one currently not being used.  After you delete duplicates, run VS Setup and choose the Reinstall/Repair option.  Restart and you should not see any package errors.

When you say "delete the duplicates" the version has to be the same too or just the name?  I'm assuming the version as well correct?