Hello, I'm currently trying to use VWD 2008 Express, no matter what I do VWD become unresponsive within the primary view if I try and use design view with anything. I've tried the pages I've been working on to completely blank pages. it does the same for split views as well. The problem is occasionaly VWD crashes completely dumping me to the desktop. When that happens I can no longer reload my project as it crashes completely again! Anyone have any ideas.

 I'm running on a Windows XP pro SP2 system with IE6, not sure what other information you might want... HELP!

Did you try and do a repair on your VWD installation?

I've attempted a repair but no luck, in progress of downloading to do a complete reinstallation.

Did a complete reinstallation and started by creating a new HTML file, didn't change anything pushed design view, and still main frame freezes. The rest of the program remains responsive most of the time, but the part you change your code, or use the design view freezes hard. (if you drag something over it then close it you see the previous window in the frozen frame)

Please open Control Panel and verify that Microsoft Web Authoring Component is installed. If it is not, look into the installation disk (you may need to burn one), in WCU folder you'll find WebToolsCore.exe that you'll need to run (setup does not have UI, it takes about 10 minutes to complete). If it is installed, check version of fpeditax.dll in Program Files\Microsoft Web Designer Tools\VWD. It should be 12.0.4518.1066. If it is not, uninstall and reinstall the component. You may also want to make sure that you don't have older Office components on the path, see here: http://blogs.msdn.com/mikhailarkhipov/archive/2007/12/14/compatibility-problem-between-vs-2008-and-office-2000-and-how-to-fix-it.aspx

Okay, I did check the component and version, both are as they are supposed to be. I read the blog you pointed out and I'm a tad confused I am running Windows Office 2003 (one of the potential trouble makers) however going into the variables I do not see VWD or Office within the list of system variables... any ideas? (think we're on the right path but missing something)

After spending more time investigating I found since I did not have the system variables to adjust simply replacing the older version of the file in office using the version in VWD corrected the problem. I've kept a backup of the office file incase of unforseen problems, however; none to report so far I am giving credit of this fix to Mikhail Arkhipov since his blog lead me to the solution.

I am also having the same problems but have Office 2007 installed (which was an upgrade from what v11), dont have any office related environment variables but not sure which files the other user replaced to fix the issue as in the office section of Web Designer Tools there are no common DLL names.... any suggestions as I need more hand holding :(  

Designer is compatible with Office 2007 since it shares code base with SharePoint Designer 2007 and Expression Web. When you say "office section of Web Designer Tools"  - which folder are you looking into and what is missing? Did you follow the steps I provided above?

Think i was probably getting more confused than anything else, in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Web Designer Tools there are two folders.... VWD which has the mentioned files with the correct version number and Office12. My understanding form an above post was that someone had found that the Office folder had included files sharing a common name with those in the VWD folder and so they had simply replaced them and it had solved their problem.... in Office12 however there was no files with the same names as those in VWD     

 Still not managed to get any further this at all... anyone have any further ideas? Would like to be able to remove 2005 but cant until 2008 works  

Hello all,

I had this very same problem I would open Visual Web Developer 2008 express and when I clicked on the "Design" button the Main window in VWD would Freeze.  I Uninstalled and reinstalled 2005 sever and VWD a number of times....

what finally worked (at least the first time...) is when I went to reinstall yet again I selected repair rather than uninstall at the Add /Remove Progams (from the control Panel). 

When I restarted VWD (sourced from the web) it worked...I clicked the "Design" button and I could design...

Hope this helps.