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sean.writes.code
New Member
USA
4 Posts |
 Posted - Jan 10 2023 : 9:08:25 PM
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After repairing my install of VS 2019 Professional for other reasons, I went to reinstall VA using the most recent .exe installer available under my company's license (build 2302). Of course, after repairing I lost my extensions, so the extensions menu bar was empty. VA installed successfully after I set the installer to run in Windows 7 Compatibility Mode - it wouldn't initially open, as mentioned in this thread:
https://forums.wholetomato.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=19269
Then I reopened VS to find that although the Extension Manager does show VA as both installed and enabled, I cannot get to the Options dialog to trigger a reparse of my solution (I have parse on open set to false). The option to open the menu from the Extensions drop-down bar is missing, and the keyboard shortcuts listed in the documentation do not work either.
Clicking Customize Menu at the bottom of the Extensions drop-down leads to a blank screen that just says "No menus available to be re-parented."
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! |
Edited by - sean.writes.code on Jan 10 2023 9:09:21 PM |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
19020 Posts |
Posted - Jan 11 2023 : 10:06:20 AM
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Are you seeing the Visual Assist toolbar? Is there any sign that VA is actually loading? Are you seeing any sign of VA being active inside the editor window?
I ask, since I have a suspicion I know what has happened. Occasionally a settings problem can happen inside the profile settings, which can stop VA from loading, even though it is installed and enabled in the extension manager dialog, and it sounds like this might have happened to you. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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sean.writes.code
New Member
USA
4 Posts |
Posted - Jan 11 2023 : 12:52:05 PM
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Thanks for the quick reply. I am not seeing the VA toolbar and can see no evidence of VA loading or being active in the editor window. VA keyboard shortcuts (find symbol, open file in solution) don't work either. It would seem likely that your suspicion is correct.
Is there a known fix for this issue? |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
19020 Posts |
Posted - Jan 12 2023 : 08:33:00 AM
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There is a fix, it "just" requires resetting your default IDE profile. The first step is to export your default profiles IDE settings, since the fix resets your current settings.� This is done via:
IDE tools menu -> Import and Export Settings -> Export selected environment settings
Now you need to close all instances of the IDE and locate the directory where your default profile is stored.� This will be:
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\16.0_xxxxx
where xxxxx is a hash, so its machine specific.� There should only be one directory matching this pattern.
If you look inside this directory you should see a file called "privateregistry.bin".� You need to delete this file, which will be recreated next time you load the default profile. You will either get the default IDE settings or your online synced IDE settings, if you have enabled this option.� So you may well want to import your exported IDE settings, to restore your preferred settings.
When you do so all of your installed extensions will still be installed, but they will be Disabled, so you need to go into the dialog:
IDE Extensions menu -> Manage Extensions
and Enable them.� This will require an IDE restart to take effect.
At this point Visual Assist should be active and working normally. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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sean.writes.code
New Member
USA
4 Posts |
Posted - Jan 12 2023 : 1:46:40 PM
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Thanks for the fix. Following your given steps, I was able to get VA activated again. However, upon restarting my IDE after enabling my extensions, VA asked me to re-register my license, and after doing so informed me "You have entered a key which does not qualify to run this build".
I tried uninstalling and reinstalling VA using the same installer, which to be clear accepted my license before any of these problems arose, and went through the process again for good measure with the same results.
I also downloaded a random installer released a few months before the one my company has licensed, and tried installing that one instead, to which I got a dialog box to the effect of "no version of VS installed is available for this extension".
Any idea what could have caused the change that is now causing my license to be recognized as invalid? |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
19020 Posts |
Posted - Jan 13 2023 : 04:45:40 AM
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I am glad we have VA loading now, that is a good start. I don't see why any of this would have caused problems with your VA license though. Do you know the end date of your current license support period?
Which version was the older installer? With VS2019 installed you would have had to go back a long way to get a version of VA that didn't support VS2019, so that's also really strange. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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sean.writes.code
New Member
USA
4 Posts |
Posted - Jan 13 2023 : 12:59:37 PM
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Yes, I agree it seems very odd. This actually isn't the first time I've had issues with license verification, although in the past all it has taken is a repeated reinstall of the same installer for the license to be accepted.
It's a very old license that my company bought, with support ending 2019.01.06. The installer I downloaded randomly to test out was from mid-2018, older than the build that is our most recent licensed build.
If the easiest solution is for me to buy a personal license, I'm willing to do so just to get back to my regular workflow. However, it's still a puzzling issue.
Thanks for the continued support! |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
19020 Posts |
Posted - Jan 16 2023 : 07:39:58 AM
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That makes sense for the installer, I am not sure of the release date without looking it up, but 2018 releases of VA stand a good chance of being released before VS2019 was released, so would not be able to support it.
I assume you are using a 2 line "legacy" license key. Can you email me about this at:
[email protected]
including this thread ID or URL in the description, so we can match it up. If you are willing to email me the key I can try it here on a test system, and see what results I get. I know that occasionally a key stops working after a certain build of VA, even though the date is inside the support range. This should only happen when the key has been replaced with a different key though.
Purchasing a personal license is certainly an option, since it will get you quite a few new features that we have added since early 2019, so you might want to have a look at:
https://www.wholetomato.com/features/whats-new
and expand it to show more releases, to get a sense of what we have been doing. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
19020 Posts |
Posted - Jan 17 2023 : 06:00:59 AM
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I have the details, thank you, and I have replied via email:
case=149044 |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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VA Options menu missing from Extensions menu bar
