Fix for VS05b1 Avalon compilation perf problems

Rob has posted a description and a couple of work-arounds to a problem some folks are having w/ 100% CPU utilization after an Avalon project is compiled in Visual Studio 2005 beta 1 + the Nov. ’04 Avalon CTP + C#.

If his solution doesn’t work for you (it didn’t for me, but I think I have a weird build), under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\CSharp\Options\Editor, try setting the UpdateRegisterDesignViewOnIdle value to 0 instead of 1. I don’t know what this turns off, but it makes the problem go away. If you trust me, I’ve put together a reg file that sets this value for you here.

BTW, if you’re wondering what happens when you turn the UpdateRegisterDesignViewOnIdle option off, it’s the feature that notices if you take a random code file and add a System.Windows.Forms.Form as a base class so that when you open the file, it’s opened in the Windows Forms Designer by default. Without this flag, VS will never notice a new Form in a code file and they’ll be no way to edit the Form in the Windows Forms Designer (not even Open With [even though every other editor is in the list…]). If you add a new Form by choosing to Add->Windows Form to the project (as most folks do), all works as expected.

However, if you absolutely need to turn a code file into a file that will open in the Windows Forms Designer, you can close the project in VS, open it in notepad and change the following:

<Compile Include=”Foo.cs”>

or the following:

<Compile Include=”Foo.cs”>
    <SubType>Code</SubType>
</Compile>

to the following:

<Compile Include=”Foo.cs”>
    <SubType>Form</SubType>
</Compile>

Thanks to Cyrus Najmabadi and Izzy Gryko — hard-working MS employees answering my emails on New Year’s Eve even when they’re officially Out Of Office — for this tips!