Visual Studio 2017 Hangs While "Preparing Solution"

Question

_{Wednesday, March 8, 2017 12:01 PM}

Opening a large solution (10 mixed projects, C++, C#, ASP.Net, VS Installer mix) VS hangs on 'Preparing Solution'. Found this: If I delete the contents of the .vs/SolutionName/V15/* (hidden .vs folder and subfolder named same as solution) and then start VS it opens. Close and reopen and it hangs again until I again delete contents of above folder.

This is my 3rd issue within 24 hours of the release of VS/2017! Help!

EDIT: Found this. I only need to delete the files named Solution.VC.* in the above named folder. The files named Browse.VC.db and .suo do not cause hanging issue when opening the solution. This discover is helpful as opening the project doesn't rebuild the Browse db file every time now.

Randy

All replies (4)

_{Friday, March 10, 2017 7:49 AM}

Hi  Randy,

Probably the project is attempting to open a file that no longer exists and that’s what causes the hang.

There is a way to help to avoid deleting the file every time, it is to delete the Solution.VC.*, open VS, open a file within the solution, build and close the solution.

Steps as below:

1. Delete the Solution.VC.* file in your side
2. Open Visual Studio
3. Open your project
4. Open a file (a random .cs or .cpp file)
5. Build and save your solution
6. Close Visual Studio

Some people try doing above, and it works.

Another suggestion is:

Build an empty solution, add existing project.  

You could create a new solution, and add those projects you already had, by Add -> Existing Project.  This could also help you avoid deleting the file.

Hope it helps.

Best regards,

Fletch

MSDN Community Support
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_{Friday, March 10, 2017 12:03 PM}

This had no impact on the problem. I created a new Solution file. Added all 8 Projects to the new Solution. Built projects, ran projects, etc. All ran as expected. Closed VS/17. Reopened new Solution. VS/17 hangs with "Preparing Solution"!

Executed batch file to remove solution db file:

"del C:\Development\SoftPoint\vs\SoftPoint\v15\Solution.vc.db /q"

Opened Solution. Opened without hanging.

What Next?

Randy

_{Friday, March 10, 2017 12:39 PM | 1 vote}

I figured out what's hanging VS/17 on startup. My solution has 8 projects.

2 VC++/CLI/MFC, 1 Web App, 3 C# Win Forms Apps and 2 VS Installer Setup Projects.

I created a new solution and added projects back in 1 by 1, each time closing and reopening VS/17. No hang on startup until I added the VS Installer Setup Projects!

The Setup Projects use the 'primary output' from the 2 VS++/CLI/MFC app's. These projects stopped working with VS/17 (still work fine in VS/15). Apparently not only do they fail to build (the subject of another bug report I posted 3 days ago) but they also hang VS/17 on startup.

So the question becomes when will the "VS Installer Project" add-in be fixed? The VS/17 version for this extension is 0.8.1. In VS/15, where it works correctly, its version is: 1.0.0.1.

Please fix this!

Randy

_{Friday, March 10, 2017 4:57 PM | 1 vote}

>So the question becomes when will the "VS Installer Project" add-in be fixed? The VS/17 version for this extension is 0.8.1. In VS/15, where it works correctly, its version is: 1.0.0.1.

Hi Randy,

Try to promote your bug report - post a link to it here, and also mention it as a comment on the installer project web page.

Dave