VS Version Question

[bones]

I ran into something unexpected on two levels and seek some advice from experienced VS programmers before to make an informed decision.

My partner and I are developing a VB2010 app with the Express version. He's doing he hardware interface portion because that's what he does. A problem surfaced with one of his other apps [not related to our joint project] where the application won't run on some Win7 systems. He emailed me stating that we will need to upgrade to VB2012 or 13 for our app to be assured it will not experience the same issues.

I'm new to VB...started with it in August of 2014 and am slowly progressing.

Researching the won't run on some Win 7 systems led me to some answers that must first be explored regarding .net framework...installed...correct version...etc. That WILL BE DONE FIRST.

BUT... I also found an article about newer releases of VS that stopped me dead in my tracks. What I think I'm understanding is that Versions newer than VB2010 Express can't be used to develop Windows Forms apps... Is that correct?

Or is that only the case if developing in C++? [we're working in VB]
Article No-cost desktop software development is dead on Windows 8 | Ars Technica

 

[IanRyder]

Hi,

I got bored really quickly when reading that link that you posted since it’s a load of rubbish and is just the ramblings of some Visual Studio hater I guess.

Have a look at these:-

Download Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Desktop from Official Microsoft Download Center
Download Overview

I use VS2013 Professional on a daily basis to write my Business Desktop Applications and I use VS2013 Express at home, since its free, to play on the Forums and do other bits and pieces.

I have also just started to trial VS2015 Preview on a Virtual Machine at home to see how that differs for the forthcoming future and all seems the same so far from a Windows Forms Development point of view.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Ian

 

[bones]

Hi,

I got bored really quickly when reading that link that you posted since it?s a load of rubbish and is just the ramblings of some Visual Studio hater I guess.

Have a look at these:-

Download Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Desktop from Official Microsoft Download Center
Download Overview

I use VS2013 Professional on a daily basis to write my Business Desktop Applications and I use VS2013 Express at home, since its free, to play on the Forums and do other bits and pieces.

I have also just started to trial VS2015 Preview on a Virtual Machine at home to see how that differs for the forthcoming future and all seems the same so far from a Windows Forms Development point of view.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Ian

Thank You Ian

I wasn't sure what to think after I read that article and I stumbled on the thing by pure chance. If I may ask, have you encountered any issues with VB2010 apps not wanting to run on all Win 7 computers? And if so, were there any reasons outside of the dot net framework either being not installed or the incorrect version of it?

That is essentially what started this endeavor to begin with and I'm afraid I don't have any specifics other than that to go by at the moment...code wise that is.

 

[Herman]

Define "not running". Obviously there can be a million different reasons why your particular app would not work one one particular system or OS. What exceptions or errors do you get?

Also Ian ( and bones too ) MS now has a VS2013 Community Edition, that is a completely free Professional edition, rebranded. Get it here: Community Edition .

 

[bones]

Define "not running". Obviously there can be a million different reasons why your particular app would not work one one particular system or OS. What exceptions or errors do you get?

Also Ian ( and bones too ) MS now has a VS2013 Community Edition, that is a completely free Professional edition, rebranded. Get it here: Community Edition .

Herman..first thank you for that link.

Secondly, I have zero to go on except the said that an app he recently built at work would run on some but not all Win 7 computers he installed it on. Outside of that I have zero to go on. I realize that's 99% no help. At the same time I was curious as to know if there was any common, known issue outside of dot net framework related problems that anyone might know of....just a shot in the dark so to speak. If I get more details I will post them..

 

[Herman]

The problem is most likely some bug he hasn't found. Nothing to do with Windows itself or the framework.

 

[IanRyder]

Hi All,

Cheers for the note on the Community Software Herman. I am aware of it but have not found that I need to migrate to that yet when playing at home.

bones, there is one possibility that could be causing the issues that you have experienced and that is the Target Framework that is used in the application that you have developed. You may or may not know yet that you can specify which version of the Framework you target in your projects and the one thing that you must ensure when deploying your applications is that each user?s PC have that specific framework version installed. This is easy to overcome and can be sorted by making sure that you set the correct Prerequisite options when you come to create your Deployment package. I use ClickOnce to deploy and you can see below how to set the Prerequisites for the application:-


Once you have done this, when the application is deployed on each machine, an automatic check will be made to ensure the target framework is installed and if its not then this is installed first before your application is installed.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Ian