Downgrade from VS2010 to VS2008

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Hi, Is there a way to downgrade my vs2010 project to vs2008?

Posted 19-Jan-12 14:26pm

Alan Tuscano

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Abey Thomas · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-19T14:41:00

Solution 1

Yes this can be done easily.
Open your Visual Studio 2010 .sln file manually in a notepad.

Usually the first line of this file will be

Quote:
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 11.00

Change the above text to what is there below and save it.

Quote:
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 10.00

Basically you are enabling the Visual Studio Program to know the version through the .sln. After this Visual Studio 2008 should be able to open a Visual Studio 2010 project peacefully. I did this recently in a laptop where I had only Visual Studio 2008, but some of the projects were of the version Visual Studio 2010.

EDIT: If the above solution does not work, I guess you will have to go the hard way (but probably the simplest of all ways) -
- Either create a fresh blank VS 2008 solution and reimport all your VS 2010 projects (.vbproj files) to it.
- Another way worth a try is to remove only the InstallShield related project (.isproj and any other related files), and have them newly created for your VS 2008 project environment.

Posted 19-Jan-12 14:41pm

Abey Thomas

Updated 19-Jan-12 16:33pm

v4

Comments

Alan Tuscano 19-Jan-12 20:50pm

Hi, I just did renaming the abovementioned and save the .sln file. double clicked on the project to open it but this error appeared,

'C:\DevProj\SetUpDevProj\SetUpDevProj.isproj' cannot be opened because its project type (.isproj) is not supported by this version of the application.

DevProj is running on other PC.

Also, would downgrading VS2010 to VS2008 affect my crystal reports?

Abey Thomas 19-Jan-12 21:01pm

I am sorry I never heard of an .isproj. Some research showed it is an InstallShield related file. The solution worked for me as I was having .vdproj as the installation related file and it was backward compatible. I guess you will have to go the hard way -
- Either create a fresh VS 2008 solution and reimport all your VS 2010 projects to it.
- Another way worth a try is to remove only the InstallShield related project (.isproj and any other related files), and have them newly created for your VS 2008 project environment.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 19-Jan-12 21:04pm

Sorry, Abey, this is not the solution. You downgrade the solution, which is easy, but you need to downgrade the projects, and this is way more difficult. There were some projects on CodeProject to do that...

What you suggested won't help at all; I did not vote...
--SA

Abey Thomas 19-Jan-12 21:08pm

I did put this here because, it did work for me when I tried it recently. All I did was the .sln change and it did open up even the projects for me peacefully. I guess for a large application there might be more settings which has to be changed.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 19-Jan-12 21:12pm

I don't understand how. Did you really downgrade, not upgrade (upgrade is provided by Visual Studio anyway)? Are you sure it wasn't an empty solution? :-)
I did it, too; without the utility, it was quite difficult. How can you explain it. Differences in projects of different versions are non-trivial...
--SA

--SA

Abey Thomas 19-Jan-12 21:19pm

I know it is not trivial. As I said, I got a few Visual Studio 2010 projects in a laptop where I had only Vs 2008. I made the change, it did open up for me - and it was not an empty solution by any means (cmon! :)).. Since it did work for me, I did not investigate further. Maybe I ll do that and let you know.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 19-Jan-12 21:09pm

I think I found the reference to right product for conversion. Please see my answer. I tried it in the past, it worked for me.

It's good for writing CodeProject articles, to provide the article code for a range of platforms. I did it in all my articles, but manually.
--SA

Abey Thomas 19-Jan-12 21:13pm

Allan, I suggest you try out the automated solution provided by SAKryukov. Maybe that project have handled the .isproj conversion too - worth a try

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 19-Jan-12 21:15pm

It certainly does it; it converts the solution with all the projects in it.
--SA

Alan Tuscano 19-Jan-12 21:59pm

Hi Abbey and SA,

I tried SA's Solution Converter for 2 samples too..
the first sample,

Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 11.00
# Visual Studio 2010
Project("{F184B08F-C81C-45F6-A57F-5ABD9991F28F}") = "DevProj", "DevProj\DevProj.vbproj", "{B467AFD3-50DB-4060-9A0C-5FBBFE7D2701}"
EndProject
Project("{54435603-DBB4-11D2-8724-00A0C9A8B90C}") = "DevProjInstaller", "Setup1\Setup1.vdproj", "{25F87934-C102-4B29-A820-816F4C684932}"
EndProject
Project("{6141683F-8A12-4E36-9623-2EB02B2C2303}") = "SetupDevProj", "SetupDevProj\SetupDevProj.isproj", "{AD554648-5F3E-421F-8FBD-6FDD1C3293BA}"
EndProject
Global

This .sln give an error at the Solution Converter,
"Unhandled exception has occured in your application..."

The Second sample,
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 11.00
# Visual Studio 2010
Project("{F184B08F-C81C-45F6-A57F-5ABD9991F28F}") = "DevProj", "DevProj\DevProj.vbproj", "{B467AFD3-50DB-4060-9A0C-5FBBFE7D2701}"
EndProject
Global

converted it successfully.

But when i opened the project, Error List is full of comments of error, also, i can't open the forms....

i also read in the error list about my crystal reports, VS2010 doesn't have the Crystal Report in itself, you need to download a version of CR to be used, i guess that also is a problem.

DevProj is Executable, have created a setup(installer)kit..

Abey Thomas 19-Jan-12 22:18pm

Alan, as i suspected, the converter probably does not understand the InstallShield related files. I am not aware of any convertor which takes care of Installshield related files (maybe SAKryukov can help you out here). Alternately what you can try is to remove only the InstallShield related project (.isproj and any other related files) from the solution, and have them newly created for your VS 2008 project environment.
About the errors even after successful conversion - well, I cant comment on that!

Alan Tuscano 19-Jan-12 22:55pm

Hi Abbey,

Got another converter,
http://www.ajaymatharu.com/visual-studio-higher-to-lower-version-converter/

It converted the project from VS2010 to VS2008, but got 1 more problem.
Crystal Report is not included in VS2010, you can download that with the link VS2010 supplies, and install that CR.
While VS2008, includes a Crystal Report in its reporting tools.

And an error came out when I tried to run the project. what to do now?

Abey Thomas 19-Jan-12 23:03pm

Alan, I guess you have successfully overcome one mountain of a situation to convert VS 2010 projects to VS2008 - congrats. I think now it remains with the internals of the Crystal Reports - probably the backward compatibility part of it. If you can throw some light on the type of error you got during runtime, probably someone can help you.
I am not sure if this will help you, check it out : http://www.telerik.com/support/kb/reporting/general/converting-reports-from-various-versions-of-crystalreports.aspx

Alan Tuscano 19-Jan-12 23:59pm

:)

Alan Tuscano 20-Jan-12 0:04am

I'm still debugging the new version, running into some errors that are probably belonging to VS2010 like this..
"Microsoft.VisualBasic.PowerPacks.ShapeContainer"
"Microsoft.VisualBasic.PowerPacks.LineShape"

and this can be easily remove.

but this,
"CrystalReportViewer" is not a member of "Windows.Application1.Form1Main"

Alan Tuscano 20-Jan-12 0:14am

Hi Abbey, from the link that you gave, How can I open this ?
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe.config

Abey Thomas 20-Jan-12 0:21am

Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0 folder is available only if you have VS 2010 installed in your system
In case if have it installed, check in the Program (x86) folder (if your OS is Windows 7)

Alan Tuscano 20-Jan-12 0:31am

The former VS2010 project was created in Window 7 OS, now, I'm using a Windows XP sp3 and VS2008.

I'm sorry, I meant this,
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe.config

I have found "devevn.exe.config" but don't know to edit it?

Abey Thomas 20-Jan-12 0:41am

Ya open the file devevn.exe.config in Visual studio or any xml editor you have, and then change the Crystal Report version numbers as described in the link. Make sure that you first take a backup of the devevn.exe.config file before changing it.

Alan Tuscano 20-Jan-12 1:28am

Hi again Abbey and SA,

I come to realize, that I wont be needing the crystal report when i converted the project to VS2008.

Thank You Guys.. :)

Abey Thomas 20-Jan-12 1:31am

it was my pleasure trying to help you..though finally u solved the problem on ur own! :)

Alan Tuscano 20-Jan-12 1:32am

still, thanks a lot. :)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-19T15:07:00

This CodeProject article offers the automated solution for this problem: SolutionConverter[^].

[EDIT]

A bonus advice: take a look at any of my CodeProject articles. I always provided source code built to a range of platform versions + Mono. The trick is to provide different builds sharing the same source code. I think my approach is interesting.

Downgrade is especially important for publications like that.

—SA