The advantage of running Visual Studio 2010 on Windows 7 instead of Windows XP

Question

Are there any advantages to using Visual Studio 2010 in Windows 7 instead of Windows XP?

Answer 1

Consider the difference between WPF on XP and Windows Vista (Aero) as one of the arguments. In addition, insert all the general improvements in Windows over the past decade and so on ...

Edit: To clarify, Visual Studio 2010 uses WPF, so you get a much faster and more stable IDE using it in Vista / Windows 7.

Answer 2

Firstly, Windows 7 has advantages to offer you. I am more productive in Windows 7. And Visual Studio 2010 (unlike 2008 and earlier) is Windows 7. For example, I get good jumplists to make it easier to work with recent projects. It also allows you to install Visual Studio extensions, such as the one I wrote on a blog that adds a compiler progress bar as an overlay on the taskbar icon, so you can minimize VS during a slow build and know how to do it.

Secondly, moving your main unit to 7 is likely to help your users. Many developers were caught off balance when they first started the application on a machine on which they are not administrators. Windows 7 development is one way to make sure your application works with UAC and runs on an XP machine that is run by a non-administrator (if you ever meet it.) Typically, using Windows 7 features will encourage you to connect them to your application. By staying on XP, you increase the tendency for you to ship XP applications, people can sort mainly in Windows 7, and not in a Windows 7 application.

Answer 3

As a rule, I believe that it is better to develop on your target platform. Therefore, if you developed for Windows 7, develop on Win7. If you are developing for XP, I would suggest developing on XP.

Everything else is a matter of taste. Yes, there are many developers who love Win7 and cannot imagine how to return to ancient XP. On the other hand, there are still a lot of people who believe that XP is a more mature Windows, and will not consider switching until the release of Win7 SP2.

Take your pick ...

Answer 4

I assume that this also depends on your goal, if you are developing applications (read WPF / Windows Forms), then, as already mentioned, it will need to be tested on several platforms, so this does not make a difference. However, if you are developing web applications, you should target the specific version of IIS to which you intend to deploy. This made it easier to run IIS Express, however, if you plan to use IIS 7.5 for Windows 2008 R2, start Windows 7 :-)

In my experience, Windows 2008 R2, working as a workstation, is pretty good, but does not have support for some DVD-RW discs, and graphics cards may be a little unstable, so stick with Windows 7 :-)

Hope this helps :-)

Answer 5

The killer argument: VS 2010 is more stable on Win7 than on XP. I have two configurations, and depending on what I'm exactly doing, VS crashes every 30 minutes on XP, while it rarely crashes on Win7.

This is mainly due to the fact that VS 2010 uses the Windows Presentation Foundation, which was not in place when XP was developed.

But overall, I experienced VS 2010, which was much more erratic than 2008, anyway. I pray for SP1 every day, -) ...

EDIT:
I do not think it is useful to take care of the target platform in the first place. It is much more important for me to have a reliable everyday work environment.

Thomas

Answer 6

To my mind:

If you are using Windows XP, you do not have the full transparency features of WPF and Window 7. Another thing is that your system can play much faster than in Windows 7.

Window 7 gives you a complete view of all the functions for complete development enjoyment in window 7.

Visual Studio is developed on WPF, so working with modern technologies is much better than working with the old version.

I myself use Visual Studio on Window 7, but I use the classic mode, which gives me a feel of the classic Window XP.