Q&A about the VC++ Intellisense QFE

Hello

Last week, Jim announced the availability of the Intellisense fixes as a publicly downloadable QFE for Visual C++ 2005 SP1. Since then we have seen a number of customers install the QFE and we have especially enjoyed hearing about your successful experiences with the QFE. Jim has also recently blogged about macros to control the Intellisense functionality (enable/disable/etc) - here is the link to that entry: http://blogs.msdn.com/vcblog/archive/2007/11/19/controlling-intellisense-through-macros.aspx

There were some questions that I've seen asked several times (in the blog comments, the forum or via email) that I thought would warrant a one-stop-shop Q&A.

Q: Is this fix compatible with the XBox SDK?

A: The QFE is not compatible with the XBox SDK. Please don't install the QFE since this can break the XBox integration with Visual Studio.

Update: The Xbox team ported our changes and they are making them available in the November QFE release of the XDK you can download from the XBox 360 program website.

Q: I downloaded the QFE package but it refuses to install. Why doesn't it work on my machine?

A: The QFE will refuse to install in one of the following cases: (1) you don't have VS2005 SP1 installed on your machine (2) you have a localized version of Vs2005 SP1 (Italian/Korean/etc.)

1. In the first case the refusal of the installation is expected and the only option you have is to upgrade to SP1.
2. For the second case, you are running into an issue with the QFE package. We are working on a fix as we speak and expect to have a fixed QFE in December. We will be updating this blog entry when the new QFE package becomes available. Until then, a workaround is to replace the 3 binaries on your machine (vcproject.dll, vcprojectengine.dll, vcpkg.dll) with the ones from a machine with an English VS and the QFE installed (make sure you create copies of your binaries before overwriting in case you run into any issues and need to revert back to the originals).

Q: My installation never finishes. Is this a known issue?

A: We received several reports that the QFE installation on some computers can take between 15 minutes and 1 hour and consume a fair amount of RAM. Even if this is an undesirable behavior, it does not mean the installation froze or crashed. Save some time by launching the installation in the evening before leaving the office or at lunch time; the setup will prompt you with a confirmation message when the installation is complete.

If you are running into any issues that do not reproduce without the patch, please send us your feedback using the “Email” button at the top of this page.

I hope these help. Let us know if you have other questions.

Marian Luparu
Program Manager
Visual C++ IDE