What versions of Visual Studio can be installed concurrently?

Question

Are there any conflicts with having any combination of Visual Studio 2003, 2005 and/or 2008 installed? I noticed a related question here but wanted a more general answer.

Answer 1

Yes no problems, and I typically have 2-3 versions installed at the same time. 2003 is the one I haven't used much, but my production code is currently split between 2005, 2008, and 2010. over the next year all the 2005 code will be moved to 2010 and .NET 4, so it will be installed.

I would have VS6 installed for legacy support but I have to run at it in a VM because Win7 doesn't like it.

Answer 2

The only minor problem I had was that I installed 03 after 08, and all my solutions then became assigned to 03. Assigning them to the version selector instead was all I needed to do.

Answer 3

I've got 2005 and 2008 installed concurrently.

2008 is a superset of 2005, so I have no reason whatsoever to have them both, I just haven't gotten around to un-installing it yet

Answer 4

Just make sure you only have RTM versions and not Beta or RC versions installed. You'll have no end of pain if you don't cleanly remove the beta or RC versions before installing the RTM versions.

Answer 5

6/2002/2003/2005/2008, I believe, can all coexist.

Though just this weekend I purged 'em all except 2008 as it went totally mad and stopped showing the build output. Plus my splash screen wasn't right. Now it is.

Answer 6

6, 2000/2001 (I can't remember which is .net 1.0), 2003, 2005, 2008... of course within .NET you may have issues with getting the right solution with the right version. I haven't really seen any conflicts in particular.

Answer 7

I have all 3 installed and have had no adverse problems...knocking on wood