The VS2005 ToolBox is big slow jug of lard (not literally, I'm speaking metaphorically)

[Jules Winfield]

I'm using VS2005. I have a solution consisting of twelve projects. All
projects are console/service apps except for one which is a WinForms app.
There are no web projects. I'd say that I'm at around 125k-150k lines of
code in total.

My development machine has 2gigs of physical RAM, a hyperthreaded CPU
running at 3.6ghz, and plenty of harddrive space on a recently defragged
drive. The only installed apps are VS2005 and SQL Server 2005. The OS is
Win2003 Server.

VS2005 seems to be incredibly slow for me. Compiling a project, or even the
whole solution, seems pretty quick -- but after the compile/build is
complete, VS2005 just sits there. The application hangs and accepts no
keyboard or mouse input. It hangs for about 10 seconds. It's irritating
because I compile quite frequently, particularly during debug sessions.

The hang problem doesn't occur in a given VSNet session until I enter
WinForms design mode. The first time I enter design mode, VSNet hangs and
spends about 20 seconds filling the darned toolbox. After the initial
toolbox hang-fest, the post-compile hang problem begins.

I'm suspicious that the entire problem is ToolBox related. By far the
largest project in my solution is the WinForms app. This app contains
somewhere between 75-100 different control classes that derive from
UserControl. VSNet insists on sticking each and every one of these suckers
in the Toolbox. I don't want them there!! There's no need for them to be
there. I will never have occasion to drag one of them onto a form. They are
created dynamically at runtime in the code, not at design time. If there
were a way to tell VS2005 to NOT add my custom controls to it's
slow-as-molasses toolbox, I think the problem might be resolved. Any ideas
on how to do this? Perhaps some special attribute that needs to be applied
to each control?

Thank you for your support,

Jules Winfield

[RobinS]

Here's some interesting stuff from MSDN with patches for
performance problems with VS2005 when you have multiple
projects in one solution.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/920805/

This one fixes a problem that sometimes occurs after you
install the one above.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924162/

And here's another one:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917452/

As for the Toolbox issue, I don't know, but hopefully
someone else hasvsome ideas about that.

Good luck.
Robin S.

"Jules Winfield" <gh****@englewood.comwrote in message
news:Lp******************************@giganews.com ...

I'm using VS2005. I have a solution consisting of twelve projects. All
projects are console/service apps except for one which is a WinForms app.
There are no web projects. I'd say that I'm at around 125k-150k lines of
code in total.

My development machine has 2gigs of physical RAM, a hyperthreaded CPU
running at 3.6ghz, and plenty of harddrive space on a recently defragged
drive. The only installed apps are VS2005 and SQL Server 2005. The OS is
Win2003 Server.

VS2005 seems to be incredibly slow for me. Compiling a project, or even
the whole solution, seems pretty quick -- but after the compile/build is
complete, VS2005 just sits there. The application hangs and accepts no
keyboard or mouse input. It hangs for about 10 seconds. It's irritating
because I compile quite frequently, particularly during debug sessions.

The hang problem doesn't occur in a given VSNet session until I enter
WinForms design mode. The first time I enter design mode, VSNet hangs and
spends about 20 seconds filling the darned toolbox. After the initial
toolbox hang-fest, the post-compile hang problem begins.

I'm suspicious that the entire problem is ToolBox related. By far the
largest project in my solution is the WinForms app. This app contains
somewhere between 75-100 different control classes that derive from
UserControl. VSNet insists on sticking each and every one of these suckers
in the Toolbox. I don't want them there!! There's no need for them to be
there. I will never have occasion to drag one of them onto a form. They
are created dynamically at runtime in the code, not at design time. If
there were a way to tell VS2005 to NOT add my custom controls to it's
slow-as-molasses toolbox, I think the problem might be resolved. Any ideas
on how to do this? Perhaps some special attribute that needs to be applied
to each control?

Thank you for your support,

Jules Winfield

[JS]

Yes, the toolbox is very slow.

Your VS hang at the end of the build is most likely because VS is doing
its 'AutoToolboxPopulate'. You can turn this off in
'Tools/Options/Windows Forms Designer'.

[Jules Winfield]

Wow, that was it! Never would have found that toggle on my own... thanks for
the tip!
"JS" <jn*********@gmail.comwrote in message
news:11*********************@f16g2000cwb.googlegro ups.com...

Yes, the toolbox is very slow.

Your VS hang at the end of the build is most likely because VS is doing
its 'AutoToolboxPopulate'. You can turn this off in
'Tools/Options/Windows Forms Designer'.

[The Grim Reaper]

I don't know if you're aware, but all the patches mentioned by Robin S are
wrapped up in Service Pack 1.
I've got the beta installed - not sure when the actual release is (or
was?!) - but the beta has sped up my VS2005 installations on my 2.6Ghz,
512Mb laptop, my 2.8GHz Celeron (<shudders>), 512Mb thing at work, and also
on my 3.2GHz, 2GB home desktop.
I'd do a search through this newsgroup for pros and cons of SP1 before you
install it, but it definitely gets my vote for an overall speed increase.
____________________________________
The Grim Reaper

"Jules Winfield" <gh****@englewood.comwrote in message
news:fY******************************@giganews.com ...

Wow, that was it! Never would have found that toggle on my own... thanks
for the tip!
"JS" <jn*********@gmail.comwrote in message
news:11*********************@f16g2000cwb.googlegro ups.com...

>Yes, the toolbox is very slow.

Your VS hang at the end of the build is most likely because VS is doing
its 'AutoToolboxPopulate'. You can turn this off in
'Tools/Options/Windows Forms Designer'.