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So I have Visual Studio 2003 running on Windows 7 - yeah I am aware it isn't officially supported - and no, unfortunately I can't change that situation :-(

For the most part it works OK but I have a specific problem, that I can't figure out. The application hangs if you do a project wide search (Ctrl - Shift - F) for a string.

I have a reasonably powerful machine and all the other heavy tasks like compiling and debugging all work fine. It also works if I restrict the search to the current document (Ctrl - F). I am running it as administrator and VS.NET 2003 SP1 has been applied.

The size of the project does not seem to be a problem since a colleague is also experiencing this issue for a single project solution containing 5 pages.

I am currently using Windows Search as a work-around and I was wondering if there is something I missed that I should try.

Nikhil
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  • Never mind, I cross-posted this and got a better response in Serverfault and SuperUser. – Nikhil Mar 12 '10 at 03:36
  • I wrote a blog post detailing some of the stuff I needed to configure in order to get VS 2003 to work on Windows 7 - http://technikhil.wordpress.com/2010/01/12/visual-studio-2003-and-windows-7-can-get-along-really/ – Nikhil Mar 16 '10 at 09:16

4 Answers4

18

Try disabling the Aero theme in compatibility. Yeah seriously...

Tom
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    Wow - That was the reason it hangs... I checked the compatibility setting to "Disable Desktop Compositing" and search started working. – Nikhil Mar 16 '10 at 09:04
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    If you don't see "Compatibility" tab (I don't have this tab for devenv.exe in Win8x64Pro, for example), run `regedit.exe`, then go to `HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers` and create `String` value with name `C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe` and value data `^ RUNASADMIN DISABLEDWM DISABLETHEMES`. – izogfif Mar 14 '13 at 14:46
  • Worked for me on Vista, 7 and now 8 (using the monstrous registry trick). Many thanks. –  Feb 21 '14 at 15:37
  • izogfif's regstry hack worked for we with VS 2003 on Win7. Thanks! – osullivj Jul 29 '15 at 09:57
  • Thanks, that works. In the German Version its called 'Visuelle Designs deaktivieren'. – A.Franzen Aug 26 '16 at 07:11
  • @izogfif it seems to setting "Adjust for best performance" and adding the regkey you're talking about fix the problem for me in Win10 –  Jul 17 '18 at 12:58
  • @Ivanzinho Try answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/23662619/156973 with reg file. If that doesn't help, please provide more details about your issue: what do you do (step-by-step, if possible)? What do you expect to happen? What happens instead? P.S.: I wish there was a chat room on stackoverflow so we can avoid spamming the comments. – izogfif Jul 18 '18 at 06:15
6

You can do this by right clicking the shortcut to launch VS.NET 2003 and selecting properties, choosing the “Compatibility” sub-tab and then checking “Disable Desktop Compositing” as well as “Disable Visual Themes”

Lakshmi
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5

I use Windows 8.1, and the path
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers]
is invisible and could not be created manually inside regedit.exe. So I wrote a registry file "abc.reg" with text:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers]
"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\\Common7\\IDE\\devenv.exe"="^ RUNASADMIN DISABLEDWM DISABLETHEMES"

Execute it by double click icon of "abc.reg" (may be Run As "Administrator").
It works.
(The post is for your convenience in this certain case)

Chance
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  • Also confirm this works on Windows 10, v1803. You will need to maximise the window afterwards. – AlainD Nov 01 '18 at 10:38
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I am running Windows 10 Enterprise 1909 and found global search also causes VS2003 to freeze and stop responding.

The advised registry edit did not work for me - VS2003 refuses to start up when run as admin:

A referral was returned from the server.

This is the same error I get if allowing the compatibility trouble-shooter to apply Windows XP (Service Pack 3).

I can get global search working if I remove RUNASADMIN and DISABLEDWM from the registry value (I.E. leave only DISABLETHEMES in place).

Create a registry key as follows:

  • Location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers
  • New: String Value
  • Name: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe
  • Value: ^ DISABLETHEMES

You will end up with an even uglier UI (quite an achievement in itself!) but at least global search will now work.

Neal
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