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Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 Now Available

We finished the RTM release of Visual Studio 2012 in August 2012 and launched it in September.  At that time, we committed to releasing new value into Visual Studio via a regular cadence of Visual Studio Updates, and in November 2012 we released our first, Visual Studio 2012 Update 1 (VS2012.1), which contained not only bug fixes and performance improvements, but also new functionality spanning four primary areas of investment: Windows development, SharePoint development, agile teams, and continuous quality.

I’m excited to announce that today we’ve shipped Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 (VS2012.2) and that it’s now available for download.  Just as with VS2012.1 (which is installed as part of VS2012.2 for those of you who don’t already have VS2012.1 installed), this release contains important fixes as well as a wealth of new functionality, addressing feedback we’ve received from the community and aligning with key software development trends in the market.  The new functionality primarily spans (though is not limited to) five areas of investment: agile planning, quality enablement, Windows Store development, line-of-business development, and the general developer experience.

Agile planning. Visual Studio 2012 introduced a wide range of capabilities focused on enabling agile teams, not only for development but also for planning.  With VS2012.2, Team Foundation Server (TFS) has been augmented with an additional variety of features to help make it even easier for agile teams to do their planning, in particular around adapting to a team’s preferences and work styles.  For example, VS2012.1 introduced new project tracking options, including a Kanban board and a cumulative flow diagram; VS2012.2 augments those experiences with the ability to customize the Kanban board to adapt it for an organization’s needs.  Other features include work item tagging that provides a simple and flexible way to add metadata to work items in support of better organization and reporting, support for emailing work items via the TFS Web Access portal, and more.

Quality Enablement. A key focus area for Visual Studio 2012 is in enabling quality to be maintained and improved throughout development cycles.  This focus can be seen not only in the RTM release, but also in VS2012.1, with the added support for code coverage with manual ASP.NET testing, with support in Test Explorer for custom “traits”, with support for cross-browser testing, and with improvements to Microsoft Test Manager.  Now with VS2012.2, support for quality enablement is taken even further.  This update introduces web-based access to the Test Case Management tools in TFS such that users can now author, edit, and execute test cases through the web portal.  It also includes the ability to profile unit tests (with results across both the unit tests and the code under test surfaced through a single report), improved unit testing support for both asynchronous code and for interactions with the UI, unit testing support for Windows Phone 8 apps, unit test playlists that enable a subset of tests to be managed together, significant improvements around testing for SharePoint 2013 (web and load testing, unit testing with emulators, coded UI support, and IntelliTrace support), and more.

Windows Store development. VS2012.2 includes additional new features for Windows Store development, beyond the quality enablement capabilities already mentioned.  For example, VS2012.1 included a new memory profiling tool for apps implemented with JavaScript, enabling developers to better understand the memory usage of their apps, to find and fix leaks, and so forth; for VS2012.2, we continued to invest in improved diagnostics for JavaScript apps with a new profiling tool that helps diagnose UI responsiveness issues and latency in visual updates.  This release also incorporates the latest version of the Windows App Certification Kit.

Line-of-business development. Beyond improved support for building Windows Store apps, VS2012.2 also brings with it a wealth of new and improved capabilities for developing and modernizing line-of-business (LOB) apps.  This includes the ability to use LightSwitch to easily build cross-browser and mobile web clients with HTML and JavaScript, with support to target SharePoint 2013 and Office 365.  It includes support in Blend for SketchFlow, WPF 4.5, and Silverlight 5.  And more.

Development experience. As developers spend so much of their time using the IDE, it’s important that Visual Studio provide as streamlined an experience as possible.  Towards that end, we continually invest in new features and productivity enhancements to make the IDE the best and most productive environment possible, a trend we continue with VS2012.2.  Code map has been updated with improved responsiveness as well as with debugger integration, providing a visual perspective on the relationships and dependencies in code being debugged.  Symbol loading has been improved across both the profiling and IntelliTrace experiences.  The Workflow designer now has an improved debugging experience.  The XAML design surface in both Blend and the Visual Studio editor includes multiple performance and reliability improvements, in particular when loading large projects and when using third-party controls.  The IDE’s light and dark themes are now joined by a third, blue theme.  And more, such as including all of the improvements made available through ASP.NET and Web Tools 2012.2.

Install Update 2 today to get the latest support Visual Studio has to offer.  A more expansive list of what’s new in VS2012.2, including new features and bug fixes, is also available.

Namaste!

Follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ssomasegar.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Yay!

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Thank you!

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    when brief support?

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Just Great...

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Is this applicable for VS2012 Express?

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Awesome!

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Maybe they should fix this MAJOR bug.  What a Sinofsky that this isn't fixed. connect.microsoft.com/.../760967

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    @mam: Yes, see support.microsoft.com/.../2797912.  Note, though, that many of the features described in this post will not be available in Express. @Gianni: I don't understand the question.  Can you elaborate?

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Is TFS Team Project rename possible with Update 2? visualstudio.uservoice.com/.../2037605-rename-project-in-tfs

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    @Teddy: No.  See Brian Harry's related and recent comment at blogs.msdn.com/.../team-foundation-service-update-mar-4.aspx: "No, I'm afraid not [...] We haven't forgotten about it [...] We're planning a set of "lightweight project" infrastructural changes and rename will come in that timeframe (if we don't find something tactical sooner)."

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    How about unit and UI testing for JavaScript apps?

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    @philk: We have not made any specific improvements in the Test Explorer for javascript. The Test Explorer supports a number of 3rd party frameworks and a plug in model for new frameworks. On the VS Gallery the Chutzpah adapter is available. It will support running and writing tests for javascript utilizing the QUnit or Jasmine frameworks. visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/f8741f04-bae4-4900-81c7-7c9bfb9ed1fe

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    MENUS ARE STILL IN CAPS!!

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Is Blend part of this or not? If so where is it? I can't see it

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Are you going to add support for Touch like you have in Office? When Office is in Touch mode, it increases spacing. Furthermore, I can't pan in the editor with touch, and I have to hit the very tiny scrollbar to do so with my clumsy fingers. I'm using a Surface Pro. It would be great to see Microsoft deliver, so that I can actually use touch a lot more than I do now. I don't program through touch (I have my Type Cover), but I use touch often assistively for things like scrolling.

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    ISO images available ?

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Meh

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    A blue theme, you guys really know how to please a developer

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    "...And more, such as including all of the improvements made available through ASP.NET and Web Tools 2012.2." Does this mean I don't need to also install Web Tools 2012.2?

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    @mkk: Yes, the updates to Blend are part of Update 2. @LMKz: I've forwarded your details and question to the setup team so that they can see the issue you're facing and hopefully help to work through the issue. @Tristan: No, an ISO is not available.  You can install the update Offline using a technique like that outlined at blogs.msdn.com/.../how-to-install-visual-studio-2012-update-1-offline.aspx. @Mario: Yes, VS2012.2 includes and installs ASP.NET and Web Tools 2012.2 if you don't already have it.

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    @Stephen Toub there are perfectly good means for downloading software packages (think download managers etc.). A custom installer is neither perfect or often even an adequate approach. Please create an ISO. While you might live in a world where everything is connected and connectable there are many who are not in that circumstance. The stance of moving away from ISOs as a software delivery mechanism is offensive to those that need to work with this stuff IRL.

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Thank you for this great news. :) By the way, any chance of releasing this and/or future similar Visual Studio updates through Windows Update?

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Again. support.microsoft.com/.../2797912 When you build x64 binaries for ARM platform Huh?

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Does Update 2, contain the new c++ 11 features, which were contained in the Visual C++ Compiler November 2012 CTP? If not, when will an RTM for the new c++ features be available? Thanls

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Vote for ISO delivery of updates at: visualstudio.uservoice.com/.../3816021-provide-visual-studio-updates-as-an-iso-image-for-

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Senseless in Seattle, thanks for catching that. That is supposed to be X64 & ARM. We will update the page. Thanks,

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Hi Joseph, the update doesn’t include the C++11 features released in the November CTP. We are currently finalizing the release plans for those features. We will share more details soon Thanks.

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    @Stephen Toub - Here is the error I get when trying to create an offline install with /layout: WinACK_native_x64_en  Not a cryptographic message or the cryptographic message is not formatted correctly.

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Great!

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Thank You :D

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Liked Namaste ! at the bottom

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Is the GUI fixed now?

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Did you bring back the basic setup and deployment project type?. How am I supposed to deploy my services?

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Still no C# memory profiling?

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    IDE Macros still missing...

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Also have a problem downloading. Just keeps asking me to retry but fails pretty much immediately. Tried with and without /layout

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    That's so great!

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Still looks ugly and unusable though! Stop fixing things that don't need fixing and fix the things that do, make the product usable Microsoft is rapidly becoming the company that  is No 1 in the art of not listening. and just in case you don't get that - its not a good thing!

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    @Mike See the .NET memory allocation profiler (Requires VS2012 Pro) blogs.msdn.com/.../net-memory-allocation-profiling-with-visual-studio-2012.aspx

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Did you restore the keystroke macro recording feature?  I can't believe that Microsoft thought that was not needed! And please, give us the option to go back to the VS2010 look and feel.  VS2012 is just plain clunky and hard to read.  

  • Anonymous
    April 05, 2013
    It seems that, after aplying Update 2, DeploymentItem attribute of my tests is not working anymore. I haven't changed anything but the tests aren't working becaus the files are not being deployed. Are you experiencing the same issue?

  • Anonymous
    April 05, 2013
    I'm getting the same problem as LMKz, et al.  I've tried the msdn and public downloads and running as admin.  Same result.

  • Anonymous
    April 05, 2013
    @LMKz, Burton, Addisco, Mladen, JohnT: Thanks for reporting this, and sorry you're having troubles.  The setup team is investigating. @Mathias Lorenzen: Improved Touch support, for example in the code editor, is something we'll look into more in the future.

  • Anonymous
    April 05, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 05, 2013
    Regarding the IDE, I'm still awaiting the option to replace the icons with the VS2010 iconography. Will this ever occur? And what about having it respect the desktop theme, of which I am using Aero?

  • Anonymous
    April 05, 2013
    Nicely done, thanks

  • Anonymous
    April 05, 2013
    Is this also meant to upgrade "Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Shell (Integrated)"? I'm guessing it doesn't, because it didn't. Should it?, or is there some good reason, "by design", that it doesn't.

  • Anonymous
    April 05, 2013
    @LMKz, Burton, Addisco, Mladen, JohnT:  In trying to diagnose the issue you are seeing, can you please help verify if you have the correct certs on your machines? To Verify:  Run certmrg.msc, Expand Trusted Root Certificate Authorities, Click on the Certificates folder, and look for Microsoft Root Certificate Authority 2011. To Fix:  Run support.microsoft.com/.../931125 (Most users automatically download the cert as needed, but it is possible this is being blocked in your case) To Follow-up:  Can you verify if this addresses your issue?

  • Anonymous
    April 05, 2013
    @Matt Cavallari I'll have to check in the morning. Will let you know. Thanks.

  • Anonymous
    April 05, 2013
    selamat bergabung semuanya

  • Anonymous
    April 05, 2013
    Is KB2781514 included in VS2012 Update 2?

  • Anonymous
    April 05, 2013
    The ugly win8, the horrible visual studio 2012 and the stupid lighswitch are three good reason to move developers from .NET to java and linux or macos.

  • Anonymous
    April 06, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 06, 2013
    the error now states: this program cannot run on your computer check with the vendor

  • Anonymous
    April 06, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 06, 2013
    I was able to download it from my win7 computer and got the update that way to install on my win server 2013

  • Anonymous
    April 06, 2013
    Just installed this update, and waited over 5 minutes for my Windows Store VB Solution to load... Now XAML designer has no XAML, just grey emptiness. Grrrr installing MS updates is like playing Russian Roulette. Restarting VS... Stars have aligned... and it now works! @Matt Cavallari I ended up downloading on a different machine so can't comment on the whole cert thing... Except that I am sick of all these unnecessary dependencies MS inject into all their installs. But I can advise that when I originally tried to download with /layout it was on an XP 32bit machine - perhaps that was the "problem"? PS This comment may show twice, didn't seem to work first time. Lucky I am now in the habit of copying all my comments before posting on MS's flaky blog sites.

  • Anonymous
    April 06, 2013
    Wow... new blue theme, what can I say, amazing work! A blue-ish border, that is just pure genius! Sarcasm aside, maybe you could prioritise bugs that actually prevent me getting work done like this annoying one: connect.microsoft.com/.../reference-highlighting-rename-fail-in-vs-2012-vb-with-addhandler

  • Anonymous
    April 06, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 06, 2013
    @LMKz I would love to take a look at the XAML designer/editor issue you are running into and help out. If you are constantly running into it, can you please get in touch with me offline at unnir at Microsoft dot com since we will need a little more data to understand the precise cause of the hang? Thanks! Unni PM, XAML Tools

  • Anonymous
    April 06, 2013
    I hate it that VS2012 always shout on me... Please make it STOP!

  • Anonymous
    April 07, 2013
    Before U2 once in every 100 or so starts all my in-edit files would be gone (as in, no tabs, etc.).  Now, every start it's empty.  Also, the tabs still disappear during use on occasion; I have to un-pin this or that, or move this or that tab to a different location, for the tabs to appear again.  Very annoying features you put in this thing.

  • Anonymous
    April 07, 2013
    "Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Shell (Integrated)" did get the new blue theme, but I wasn't able to get the"Microsoft Git Provider" to show up as a source control plugin which is what I was really after.

  • Anonymous
    April 07, 2013
    This is still buggy, slow and ugly. Why do you keep adding more features when the ones you have don't work ! I can't believe as long as visual studio has been out we are still having to code forms by hand from scratch because you won't fix any designers to make them usable. This product is yet to evolve from the stone ages. And  Windows store really... Do you think we are really dumb enough to write app for all 5 windows 8 users. --- Fix the bugs.... Please MICROSOFT move VISUAL STUDIO DEVELOPMENT back to the USA and TERMINATE ALL THE PEOPLE THAT WORK ON THIS PROJECT. WE DESERVE SO MUCH BETTER THEN THIS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Anonymous
    April 07, 2013
    @Ruben, I am unable to repro any issue with DeploymentItem. Please try out the following troubleshooting steps.

  1. Verify that Update 2 has been correctly installed. VS version should be "11.0.60315.01 Update 2"
  2. Restart VS
  3. Clean & Rebuild the project If you are still able to repro the problem, please send me a small repro - mathewan at Microsoft dot com.
  • Anonymous
    April 07, 2013
    Is Update 1 needed to be preinstalled?

  • Anonymous
    April 07, 2013
    I appreciate the blend release. I also understand the exit strategy for silverlight e.g. no new stuff. But please help us consolidate the code with async support and improve the portable class library. We must support win7 for years. Regards, a silverlight developer voice.

  • Anonymous
    April 07, 2013
    Any news about the integration of the new C++ features? I was waiting for this update because I expected the November! changes to be included...but no luck.

  • Anonymous
    April 07, 2013
    @Matt Cavallari - MSFT: This didn't work. I've found Microsoft Root Certificate Authority twice in certmgr. But not Microsoft Root Certificate Authority 2011. Even running support.microsoft.com/.../931125 didn't work. After running this nothing changed. Still have only two of these Microsoft Root Certificate Authority in certmgr. I'll give up know, I have no time for those ugly download managers. Just put an ISO in MSDN and everybody will be is happy!

  • Anonymous
    April 07, 2013
    您又取消对 XP 的支持了?!坑爹啊!! YOU  have cancelled XP supporting?

  • Anonymous
    April 07, 2013
    Thanks - great update. One question though, I am not seeing any Sharepoint 2013 projects only Sharepoint 2010? Help about shows: Office Developer Tools   04940-004-0038003-02187,Visual Studio 2012 SharePoint Developer Tools   04940-004-0038003-02187. Running Microsoft Visual Studio Ultimate 2012 Version 11.0.60315.01 Update 2 on win 8 ent

  • Anonymous
    April 07, 2013
    My detailed comments about this software didn't post because your blog crashed.  I bet your blog was written in Visual Studio 2012 updates 2 lol And you are setting standards for developers, no thanks I will pass, I need software that works ! By the way thanks for listening to your customers... NOT!

  • Anonymous
    April 07, 2013
    @Matt Cavallari:  I also have the install issue - I checked for the existence of "Microsoft Root Certificate Authority 2011" and it is installed, so it is not alleviating the problem in my case.

  • Anonymous
    April 07, 2013
    @Matt Cavallari - MSFT, LMKz, Burton, Mladen, JohnT: I've downloaded the Update for Root Certificates [November 2011] (KB931125) (www.microsoft.com/.../details.aspx ) now. This worked for me! Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    April 07, 2013
    @Addisco Are you installing on Win XP, Vista, or 7?  32 or 64 bit?

  • Anonymous
    April 07, 2013
    finnally some news about silverlight, for me silverlight is still the only shining star of msft programming techs. Wish there will be sl6. I don't think Surface has any future...So WinRt No. And the most important thing, could you guys please find a solution to speed up xaml designer's saving action?

  • Anonymous
    April 08, 2013
    You cancelled XP support?

  • Anonymous
    April 08, 2013
    @Anonymous: As mentioned at support.microsoft.com/.../2797912, yes, KB2781514 is included in VS2012.2. @Guy: You can change this yourself.  See blogs.msdn.com/.../turn-off-the-uppercase-menu-in-visual-studio-2012.aspx. @victorwoo: VS2012.1 is included as part of VS2012.2, so you don't need to preinstall the former when installing the latter. @BOFHRAF: See the comments from "Ayman Shoukry, Visual C++ Team" earlier in the comments on this post. @UMU: XP support is as it was with Visual Studio 2012 RTM, as described at www.microsoft.com/.../compatibility.  The one addition to this is that VS2012.1, which is included in VS2012.2, added XP as a target for C++ development. @DiggerMeUp: Have you installed the latest Office development tools: blogs.msdn.com/.../now-available-office-developer-tools-for-visual-studio-2012.aspx ? It doesn't look like it from the version information shared.

  • Anonymous
    April 08, 2013
    @Stephen, thanks that was the missing piece ( I mistakenly thought it was part of update 2)

  • Anonymous
    April 08, 2013
    Currently I work for a company where there is a lot of pressure, my software has to install, meet my customer's needs and performs well.  I am hoping for employment on the Visual Studio team.  I think it would be wonderful to have a vice-president that releases software that doesn't work, I don't have to fix bugs in my program and I can ignore my customer base.  Correct me if I am wrong, but I your only requirement is developers email screenshots for you to post that they mock up in paint and I am very skilled in paint therefore my screenshots would be impressive. Please provide details on where I should send my resume. Regards, Ivan

  • Anonymous
    April 08, 2013
    @Dave While we have made a ton of improvements for the XAML designer in Visual Studio and Blend, I was not aware of any issues where saving files would take a lot of time. If you are still encountering this issue after installing Update 2, I would love to take a look. Please feel free to get in touch with me directly at unnir at Microsoft dot com, so we can investigate (perhaps by taking a quick profile on your machine). Thanks! Unni PM, XAML Tools

  • Anonymous
    April 08, 2013
    @John Remenyi: To my knowledge, it should work.  Note, though, that the Visual Studio Tools for Git are not included in VS2012.2.  You need to have VS2012.2 installed as a prerequisite, and then you should be able to install visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/abafc7d6-dcaa-40f4-8a5e-d6724bdb980c .

  • Anonymous
    April 08, 2013
    As a long time Visual Studio user (15 years), I am feeling almost ready to pull the pin and look elsewhere, the quality of VS is at its lowest ever. You constantly add features (most I will never use), but ignore the crippling bugs that make life unbearable for the developer. I can turn on my PC and see probably 5 different bugs within an hour. For instance, last night:

  • Trying to build, get a ".dll is in use and can't be overwritten" error. This has been around FOREVER.

  • XAML designer has random blue underlines for imports it supposedly can't find but obviously they are there as designer works and project builds.

  • Get random "unable to deploy" error on Windows Store app.

  • etc etc If I were in charge of VS I would freeze all new development until ALL the glaring bugs are fixed. Your customers will thank you. 2nd time posting this, first didn't work (another example of MS attitude to quality).

  • Anonymous
    April 08, 2013
    Do you have a roadmap of when you are going to make Visual Studio 2012 actually usable, or are you going to continue enhancing features I've never heard discussed by anyone?

  • Anonymous
    April 08, 2013
    As update 2 also has a bug of issue related to permission.................... so I heard that MS will release update 3 with bug fixes related to permissions............is it true?

  • Anonymous
    April 08, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 09, 2013
    Seriously need to bring back Macros.   I can't believe they were ever removed in the first place. At least release the source so the community can maintain them as an add-in.

  • Anonymous
    April 09, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 09, 2013
    Hi, After update i have small problem: in HTML and CSS editor not function snippets. Why?

  • Anonymous
    April 09, 2013
    Hey MG, Do you have any more details about the problem? Can you go to http://connect.microsoft.com and file the details, so that somebody from the product team can take a look. Thanks

  • Anonymous
    April 09, 2013
    @MG I'm sorry to hear you are having trouble with unit testing after installing Update 2. We would like to investigate the causes a bit further. If you could file a bug through the connect website, connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio, or email me directly, joshweb at Microsoft dot com, we can work to resolve your issue.

  • Anonymous
    April 09, 2013
    Good Job VS team on the 10% positive feedback about this release keep up the outstanding work! I will pass on SP 2 let the newbies deal with the issues. Thank goodness my free version of e c l i p s e works without issue  :)

  • Anonymous
    April 09, 2013
    @JohnT I'm using Win7 64bit?

  • Anonymous
    April 09, 2013
    @mgmoody42: This was my problem, too. See my comment from 04-08-2013. In my case this worked.

  • Anonymous
    April 09, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 09, 2013
    Getting the "unable to locate package" error as well. /layout doesn't help (same error when creating the offline package).

  • Anonymous
    April 10, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 10, 2013
    I'd also like to urge the return of ISO distribution. I downloaded the TFS update ISO (1.18GB) in a little over 5 mins, but the VS /layout download has now been running for over 70 mins to retrieve the same total size of files and the progress bar still has about a quarter of the way to go! Then once it is downloaded, I'll need to zip it before copying to the machines it's going to be installed on. The ISO really is MUCH faster and more convenient.

  • Anonymous
    April 10, 2013
    @Addisco - Thanks, that's what I have, too.  Still no joy. Looking through the error logs, the long processing times seem to be related to nearly endless failed requests for online content.  Since this installer is not wokring very well, I, too, would appreciate an ISO image (especially since Win8 can mount them without burning to disc).

  • Anonymous
    April 10, 2013
    @Joshua Weber-MSFT I have e-mailed you directly with some additional information that may help, thanks for the reply.

  • Anonymous
    April 11, 2013
    connect.microsoft.com/.../vs2012-2-v110-xp-broken-the-procedure-entry-point-initializecriticalsectionex-could-not-be-located-in-the-dynamic-link-library-kernel32-dll Thanks Microsoft, knew I could count on you breaking things.

  • Anonymous
    April 11, 2013
    @Stephen Toub - MSFT Yes I did install Visual Studio Tools for Git as per the recipe given. Just digging a bit deeper I see this in   Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Shell (Integrated) Version 11.0.60315.1 Q11REL Visual C# 2012   04932-004-0017006-02807 Team Explorer for Visual Studio 2012   04932-004-0017006-02807 Microsoft Python Tools for Visual Studio   1.5.50917.0 etc. VS Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Desktop Version 11.0.60315.01 Update 2 Visual C# 2012   05695-004-0030004-02846 Team Explorer for Visual Studio 2012   05695-004-0030004-02846 etc. These are both on same machine. So the express edition seems to have fully updated itself and I have the updated Team Explorer which includes git as that all seems to be working, I see tick marks for modified files and other things like that, whereas the integrated shell has less recent versions of c# and Team explorer and no git. I do get the new blue theme for both though so something changed. I could try reinstalling Integrated or perhaps I need to file a bug report somewhere if it helps.

  • Anonymous
    April 11, 2013
    @John Remenyi: Thanks for the follow-up.  It'd be helpful if you could submit a bug report at connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio.

  • Anonymous
    April 12, 2013
    Looks promising! But its a serious issue as its not all feature will work with vs 2012 professional version :(

  • Anonymous
    April 12, 2013
    Great stuff, still waiting for smart device development but that will probably available when Windows Embedded Compact 2013 will be released?

  • Anonymous
    April 12, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 13, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 13, 2013
    bitte WINTV.<haben

  • Anonymous
    April 13, 2013
    ok 2 days now, vs update 2 download is not complete. My net is bad, yes, but vs' installer is not at all robust, it does not resume downloads, it doesnt know how to deal with disconnections. Can someone plz explain why the decision NOT to offer a iso/setup file for offline download was made? Whats so cool about this? My net is slow but i know in this time my download manager would have downloaded more then 3gb.

  • Anonymous
    April 13, 2013
    can someone plz upload a zip of all their offline downloaded files to skydrive || gdrive and share a link here so I can download with my download manager.

  • Anonymous
    April 14, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 14, 2013
    This "update" has broken 3 or 4 aspects of one of my projects (4 interacting applications).  I suspect "security enhancements".  Right now I don't  see any feasible work arounds for at least 2 of them.  They might have been errors on my part, but I don't think so.  I think that what I was doing was (a) legitimate given all development guidelines issued by Microsoft and (b) absolutely necessary to accomplish what I need to accomplish. I think that (1) Microsoft should have been much more careful not to introduce breaking changes and (2) any user should think 3 times before installing this update.  (3) Microsoft should offer MUCH more in the way of a changelog and specific instructions/guidelines on getting around the changes they  introduce. BE WARNED -- THIS UPDATE MAY INTRODUCE BREAKING CHANGES.

  • Anonymous
    April 14, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 14, 2013
    @K98045: It'd be helpful to the team if you could share more details at connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio about what broke for you.  Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    April 14, 2013
    After the update my VS2012's respose has become really slow. If I click on a string, it sometimes takes 5 or more seconds to move the cursor, and all the while the devenv process is eating 25% CPU (=1 whole core). What's going on here?

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2013
    Just like Update 1, this update leaves different flavours of the compiler reporting different versions. x86 and the cross compiler report 17.00.60315.1 (and were updated on 15/03/13) whereas the x64 compiler reports 17.00.50727.1 still (and was updated on 26/07/12). Could someone please comment on whether this is intended and it is safe to use the x64 compiler or if this is a ***-up and needs fixing? PS. Just ignoring all these complaints and issues doesn't make them go away, it just infuriates the very developers you are trying to attract.

  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2013
    I'd like to put in a positive word for the silent majority, thousands of developers who downloaded the update with no issues. Keep up the good work guys.

  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2013
    @Tim Hughes, Tim, thanks for reporting this issue and sorry in case we missed previous reports of this problem. It's safe to use the native X64 tools in VS Update 2 -- the binaries that contain fixed were correctly updated. You can check the individual versions of the binaries by calling "cl.exe /Bv". I agree that the version number mismatch between different architectures is a bug. We will work on making sure that this problem doesn't occur again in the future. Until we fix this, can you avoid on relying on any fine grained control via MSC_VER (i.e. more granular than just checking for >= RTM version)?

  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2013
    In my opinon, the big problem are the coments, they havent been solved right way. If I cold be able to develop one feature in C++, I would create the wiev with coments, only code, and only coments, this way coments could be used like something usefull, not the way they exist now, when you need them they are there, but many times they make it hard to se pure code, and some times they stand in the way, and that is not what wey should be used in my opinoin. In the way, they should be used like pseudo code, And UML dos not fit C++ 100%, is should evolve, and instead of using it the way they us it now, I wold aplie that thing way differently.

  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2013
    @Marian Luparu, thanks for the feedback. Just knowing someone is listening makes a massive difference. > It's safe to use the native X64 tools in VS Update 2 -- the binaries > that contain fixed were correctly updated. You can check the > individual versions of the binaries by calling "cl.exe /Bv". Well OK, but I'm still a bit concerned that there have been no fixes to the x64 compiler for nine months whereas the others have moved on by what looks like several hundred builds. > I agree that the version number mismatch between different > architectures is a bug. We will work on making sure that this problem > doesn't occur again in the future. Until we fix this, can you avoid on > relying on any fine grained control via MSC_VER (i.e. more granular > than just checking for >= RTM version)? We check the compiler version in our build system before even attempting a compilation as a way to ensure everything is built with the same compiler/header/library versions and stamp (or at least classify) the object files/libraries/DLLs accordingly. Maybe that's a bit too finegrained, but it eliminates one area of worry when we're linking a couple of hundred libraries/DLLs to produce our deliverables. In any case, we probably aren't quite ready to move the production builds to VC11 yet, so I'll allow the mismatched versions for now to see how our tests go with the new compiler - XP targetting is a big deal for us for example.

  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2013
    Design not  good..

  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2013
    UI design not good.replace old UI design please

  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2013
    I wonder, is this the new VC6?  Are we there yet?  Was that not big on your list, Soma, all these years now?  Call me!

  • Anonymous
    April 21, 2013
    Beautifull Aplication

  • Anonymous
    April 21, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 22, 2013
    If you support XP still, DO NOT INSTALL THIS-- it broke XP compatibility.

  • Anonymous
    April 22, 2013
    Thanks

  • Anonymous
    April 22, 2013
    fix for XP problem in Update 2 can be found here: tedwvc.wordpress.com/.../how-to-get-visual-c-2012-update-2-statically-linked-applications-to-run-on-windows-xp

  • Anonymous
    April 23, 2013
    For C++ Developers is Visual Studio 2012 unusable! Crashs very often during debug session and compiler hangs in some cases. Nothing of them is improved in Update 2.

  • Anonymous
    April 23, 2013
    Funny addendum: New Installation without Update 1 can not apply Update 2!

  • Anonymous
    April 24, 2013
    OK...  where is it?

  • Anonymous
    April 24, 2013
    Update Failed. Ran the Visual Studio 2012 Pro Update 2 on Windows 7 - 64 Bit.  Visual Studio screen appears on start-up and then dialog "Error - Visual Studio must close,"  Re-boot had no effect.  Maybe an incompatible add-in from Nuget, but could not get in to disable these.  do not see obvious solution here.   Uninstalled Update 2 and rolling back to Update 1.  Painful waste of time and hope this works.

  • Anonymous
    April 25, 2013
    Scott, you are installing it wrong.  You have to install it right for it to work.

  • Anonymous
    April 25, 2013
    sounds nice!

  • Anonymous
    April 25, 2013
    this used to work but i get this error: Blend does not support this file format. this is a jpg file

  • Anonymous
    April 28, 2013
    Just a reminder that the decision to downgrade the Visual Studio icons to black and white is such a provocative action. Please provide an option to being back the good looking VS2010 UI back.

  • Anonymous
    April 28, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 29, 2013
    there is just a XAML view for blend, no visual stuff

  • Anonymous
    April 30, 2013
    حفظ

  • Anonymous
    May 03, 2013
    Thank you for all of the feedback around ISOs.  For all of you who are interested in that, please see: blogs.msdn.com/.../announcing-availability-of-isos-for-visual-studio-updates.aspx

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2013
    This is all wonderful news and although I may not use all of these most awesome features and capabilities, VS2012 continues to fuel my creativity, fun and excitement for software development in general. Thanks! Tavi Thurmond Chief Architect InKnowWorks, Corp.

  • Anonymous
    May 22, 2013
    I also experienced the installation problem caused by  authenticode verification failure of WinACK_native_x64_en. In my case I tracked the problem to a third-party Crypto Provider from Entrust (www.entrust.com/.../security_provider)  installed on my system. I was able to install successfully after temporarily removing the Entrust CSP.

  • Anonymous
    May 25, 2013
    Thanks

  • Anonymous
    May 31, 2013
    I still have a problem with KB2781514. Today I reinstalled Visual Studio 2012. After the installation of Visual Studio 2012 RTM, Windows said Visual Studio 2012 had a compatibility issue with Windows 8, need to install KB2781514. I didn't install KB2781514, I only installed Update 2. Then there is no compatibility warning when launching VS2012. But I still got KB2781514 when checking Windows Update. What is the problem? It is a problem with Windows Update?

  • Anonymous
    June 03, 2013
    Can anyone help with this problem I had to install the update 2, this file vcRuntimeAdditional_x86cab1.cab is requested  when try to download the Microsoft Visual C + + 2012 x86 additional runtime - 11.0.51106 how can seen in the image in the link: social.msdn.microsoft.com/.../ea4c5de0-5172-49e9-bb79-2deda6388f6f Thanks

  • Anonymous
    July 05, 2013
    Thank you so much Microsoft :D.

  • Anonymous
    September 16, 2013
    Please, fire workers and managers who Declined to bring back Setup and Deployment projects: visualstudio.uservoice.com/.../4434972-please-fire-workers-and-managers-who-declined-to-

  • Anonymous
    September 21, 2013
    First of all, if we talk about C++, there is big problem of fast or RAD GUI. There are the manny different producers and all of them have their idea how it shold be, just remember Borland it was good product, and over the thime it had somehow gone, to Embracadero thing, but what is the point of having so manny different enviroments, it should be one, but the standard one. And UML is not so good for C++, and instedad for telling what is it about, it should be more used in fase of development, like you go there and make UML, and it will generate you some C++ code, GUI, and some other things. I did not like multythereading in  c++11, I hoped for some other things and look what we get...

  • Anonymous
    October 12, 2013
    terima kasih

  • Anonymous
    May 24, 2014
    Thank you.. Good Job...

  • Anonymous
    July 09, 2014
    VS 2013 Update 2 claims to be compatible with Windows 7 SP1. However, I am on this version (6.1.7601), yet get an error telling me I'm on an incompatible version of windows. Looking at the log files I can see the logic where it checks for Windows 8.1 (v6.3):    [139C:1BE8][2014-07-09T15:44:30]i052: Condition '(VersionNT = v6.3) AND (WindowsBuildNumber < 9600)' evaluates to false.    [139C:1BE8][2014-07-09T15:44:30]i052: Condition 'VersionNT < v6.3' evaluates to true.    //...    [139C:1BE8][2014-07-09T15:44:30]i000: MUX:  Stop Block: WinBlock : This version of Visual Studio requires a computer with a !$!go.microsoft.com/fwlink version of Windows!@!. Are the minimum requirements incorrect, or is this a bug in the installer? Thanks in advance.

  • Anonymous
    July 09, 2014
    @ JohnLBevan Can you post your setup logs for us to review? Please zip up all of the dd*.log files in your %temp% folder and upload them to OneDrive, DropBox, or similar. You can email me at paul.chapman at Microsoft.com with the location. Thanks!