More "Fun" with Visual Studio 2008 SP1

Back in July I wrote about how Visual Studio 2008 SP1 wouldn't install because I didn't install C++. Since that time, I repaved that machine and installed Windows 7. I of course installed VS 2008 SP1 the same day I installed VS 2008 and all was well. The SP1 install had been updated since July to not fail just becuase you didn't install C++.

About a week and a half ago, I was working on a project to convert the C# code in Eric Carter's VSTO 2007 book to VB. One of the code listings uses Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.Extension and when I typed the dot after Excel, there was no listing for Extension. The book said it was installed in SP1, but I couldn't find it. I Binged it and saw that others had run into the same thing. There was no official explanation, but the advice was basically maybe your SP1 didn't install correctly so reinstall VS 2008. That seemed a bit extreme, especially since I had rebuilt the machine not much more than a month ago. I didn't really feel like spending more time on this, so I punted and moved on in the book.

In the meantime, I decided to install the Silverlight 3 tools on my computer. That install failed too, telling me I needed VS 2008 SP1. It told me I needed a specific version of SP1, yet the About box in Visual Studio listed that version. Once again, I Binged this and found essentially the same advice. Your SP1 isn't installed correctly.

So I downloaded SP1 from MSDN, even though Windows Update said it was installed, and reinstalled it. Bingo. Both issues went away. I now had Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.Extension and the Silverlight tools installed just fine. Why did my original install of the updated SP1 not work? Who knows. All I know is a reinstall fixed everything. So you just might want to reinstall it to be sure.