Visual Studio freezes when switching to debug mode

Question

Strange Visual Studio (TS 2008) issue: IDE completely freezes whenever I switch from Release to Debug mode in a particular project. This happens correctly when I switch before trying to build or do anything else.

It all started from the very beginning, without any abnormal changes that I can think of. I tried to clear the solution, but that did not help.

Has anyone come across this before?

Answer 1

If everything worked fine and then stopped, it usually means that some kind of problem arose, even if it went unnoticed.

Things I would try one after another:

1. Check which files were changed (why and how) after updating from version control
2. Browse the list of extensions and plugins. Try disabling all or some of them.
3. Close Visual Studio and devenv, mspdbsrv, vcpkgsrv, msbuild, msvsmon, vshub, vstest all development processes: devenv, mspdbsrv, vcpkgsrv, msbuild, msvsmon, vshub, vstest etc.
4. Delete the .suo,.ncb,.VC.db,.VC.VC.opendb solution files .suo,.ncb,.VC.db,.VC.VC.opendb well as the .vc directory, which sometimes cause problems.
5. Delete the project settings files, for example, YourProjectName.vcproj.DOMAINNAME.LOGINNAME.user or YourProjectName.csproj.user . The name of the settings file depends on the type of project you are using.
6. Run "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio [vs_version]\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe"/setup or "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio [vs_version]\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe"/setup for x64
7. In some difficult cases, this helps to remove user settings located in the home %USERPROFILE%\AppData\[Local|Roaming]\Microsoft\VisualStudio[vs_version] and in the HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio[vs_version]

You should reset all things to their original state. If this does not work, then there are additional tools for investigation. Download Process Explorer and, as soon as the IDE freezes up, start Process Explorer, find the devenv process, double-click it and go to the Threads tab. Check which thread has the largest switch delta in case of freezing, double-click on it and take the name (or offset) of the top function. This gives additional information where the problem may be.

Moreover, sometimes it helps to restore Visual Studio in the Add or Remove Programs wizard in the control panel.

Answer 2

There was this problem in 2017. I launched VS 2017 as an administrator and it worked.