A few months ago I rebuilt my laptop and reinstalled Visual Studio 2008 and installed the SQL Server Express both x64 versions. When in a solution and trying to add a SQL Server database I would get the following error.
“Connections to SQL Server files (*.mdf) require SQL Server Express 2005 to function properly.”
I have been searching for a fix for this for the last few weeks and finally found this Microsoft Support hotfix.
This issue is only experiences on 64bit systems, 32bit systems are working correctly. Your system should also have Visual Studio 2008 SP1 or Visual Studio 2008 Express Edition with Service Pack 1 installed to apply this hotfix.
Microsoft has released the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1 this week to Microsoft Downloads only a few days after releasing SQL Server 2008.
Two of the main features added in the .NET Framework service is pack is the ADO.NET Data Services and the ADO.NET Entity Framework. Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 comes with a better WPF designer, a rich entity designer and full compatibility with SQL Server 2008 that was released a few days ago.
Thanks to by buddy John Oswalt for keeping me in the loop.
On June 9, 2008, yes I am behind on this one, Ilya Ryzhenkov announced on the ReSharper Blog, that ReSharper 4.0 has been released. This release includes full support for C# 3.0, lambdas, extension methods, LINQ, object and collection initializers, anonymous types, automatic properties and partial methods. Check out a more complete list on the New Features page.
I have downloaded and installed the this version and am loving the full Visual Studio 2008 integration. The one thing that I might argue about is the implicitly typed locals (“vars”). I haven’t made up my mind on these yet. I will have to re-wire my thinking, since I always think about the old Visual Basic Variant type and shiver.
I still believe that ReSharper is a must have for any developer coding in reverse or using any of the *DD, (TDD, DDD, BDD) styles of development.
If you haven't made the jump to Visual Studio 2008 cause you don't have the bits, give a virtual PC a test drive. Microsoft is offering pre built virtual PC with several Visual Studio configurations. These are a perfect way to get a look at Visual Studio 2008 and not have to install it on your local machine. This can also be great for creating presentations.
Check out the full listing of Virtual PC Microsoft has made available pre installed with Visual Studio 2008 here: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa700831.aspx These Virtual PC images will work until April 1, 2008, so that should give you plenty of time to play around.