Run External Programs in Microsoft Visual Studio Express edition

I was using the Visual Studio Express edition for my development works. During one of such occasion, I was required to check a piece of code which is called from an application. I thought the use the “Run External Programs” feature available in Visual Studio. I did not found the option and after searching, I found that it is available only in Full version of Visual studio. I searched for the solution on the net, but did not found any. I checked the files and found an option to run the same.

 

Below is the step as how you can run the external programs in Visual Studio –.

• Close the Solution /Project from the visual studio and go to the folder where you have saved this project. Look for the folder with the project name file that is generated along with the “*.SLN” (solution file). Refer the below screen shot. 

• Open the above .USER file and add the below XML tag. 

           <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Debug|AnyCPU' ">
                  <StartAction>Program</StartAction>
                  <StartProgram>C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe<Your starting application path></StartProgram>

           </PropertyGroup>
          Now save and close the file.

• Open the project in Visual Studio and run it. Your external program will run.

Hope the above information helps you. If you have any queries, you can reach me at aby_no1@rediffmail.com

Successfully Install Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite in Windows 7

Recently I have installed Windows 7 enterprise edition with Service Pack 1 on my machine. After the installation, I started to install the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. However, the installation process is not that straight as it was in Windows XP.  It needs product updates and hot fixes before I started working on it. Considering all these paint point, I thought of sharing the steps as how to install the Microsoft VS 2005 on Windows 7. Below is the step that I have followed to successfully install the same.

 Get the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 CD and start the installation process. It will take from 20 to 40 minutes depending upon your machine configuration. You may also come across some compatibility issues during the installation, but proceed with the same.

 Once finished with the installation, you will be required to download/install the SP1 (around 431 MB) for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. You can down load the updates from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5553. Please make sure that you have at least 6.2 GB of space free in your system drive before you start the update. You can find more information on http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/bb265237.aspx.

 Once you successfully installed the above update, you need to install another update which is actually hot fix for the Microsoft Visual 2005 for Windows 7, Vista, etc. It is comparatively small in size i.e. around 29 MB. You can download the update from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=7524 and then install it on the machine.

 Now reboot your windows so that the changes from the Hot Fix/Updates can take effect.

After the reboot, open the Visual Studio and kick start working with your project.

Please let me know if this post helps you….