CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#winformsvisual-studio-2010visual-studio-2005upgrade
RSK
RSK

Reputation: 2211

Is it easy/safe to upgrade from VisualStudio 2005 to 2010 (for WinForms projects)?

my team have built many tools for our project using win forms and Visual Studio 2005. We are thinking about upgrading to VS 2010.

Just wanted a heads up on any compatibility issues and also any benefits of upgrading.

Does upgrading involve lot of time and effort or does Visual Studio take care of it?

Your answers will be help us take a decision. Thanks.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 3716

Answers (6)

Martheen
Martheen

Reputation: 5580

You'll want to check the breaking changes in C# 2008 and C# 2010, then the migration issues in .NET 3.5 and .NET 4.0, but only if you choose to upgrade the Framework target. Simply upgrading it to be readable and compilable by VS 2010 should not introduce any major issues. But, check if your project involve external component that's upgraded/removed in VS 2010, such as Reporting components, SQL connection, etc. In my experience, third party component suffer the most.

As for the benefit, lots. Check the Visual Studio Gallery for some extremely useful extensions (my favourite is the free Coderush Xpress), experience the joy of C# REPL with Roslyn, or heck, simply the Intellisense improvements makes me dread every time I'm forced to use 2008 or other IDEs.

Upvotes: 1

Graham Wager
Graham Wager

Reputation: 1887

Everyone has different expectations and differences in their list of pros and cons. As such, the best way to decide if it's right for you is to go ahead and try it. As already mentioned, it will upgrade your project files (including making a backup for you first) when you try to open them.

You can download the trial from the Microsoft website and install it alongside your existing VS2005 install. If you're worried about installing alongside, install it into a virtual machine or download the ready made virtual machine images from http://blogs.msdn.com/b/briankel/archive/2010/06/25/now-available-visual-studio-2010-rtm-virtual-machine-with-sample-data-and-hands-on-labs.aspx

Upvotes: 0

Deepesh
Deepesh

Reputation: 5604

Yes it is possible and easy but lot of depends on the features you have used in your app. It should not be depreciated in VS 2010. Take a back up of your project and try to convert it, conversion wizard will list out all the warnings and error it faced while converting your app.Then you can take a decision on the basis of it whether to upgrade your app or not?

Upvotes: 1

jrb
jrb

Reputation: 1728

Open the VS2005 solution in VS2010 and a wizard will open and upgrade your solution. Just take a backup on the existing solution and give it a try. VS 2010 is very nice!

Upvotes: 0

Mr. TA
Mr. TA

Reputation: 5359

Pros:

  • .NET improvements (provided that you upgrade the framework version)
  • Availability of newer 3rd-party libraries and tools for newer .NET (same as above)
  • IDE improvements

Neutral:

  • WinForms hasn't changed much between .NET 2.0 and 4.0.

Cons:

  • VS 2010 is a vastly heavier program, requiring much more CPU and RAM and faster disks to operate smoothly.

You decide.

Upvotes: 2

EaterOfCode
EaterOfCode

Reputation: 2222

as far as I know are there no downside's

I only know that all your changes in the visual side are gonna be placed in [name of form or usercontrol].Designer.[cs/vb]

I am a user of VS2010 and Im really happy with it so,

but why not wait on VS2012?

Kind Regards,

Corné

Upvotes: 1

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