Troubleshooting with IDE - Unable to open search!
Hi.
I have Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition and I am having problems with the "Search" option, where you type in Keywords and it searches on 4 different websites / places including my on-board MSDN.
It has worked before, in the past, and has been very helpful... But lately it will not open when I try to start it.
When I click on the "Search" button at the top it gives me this message box: "The type initializer for 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.CommonIDE.Help.Sylesheet' threw an exception." and that is all that it tells me. I have no idea why it says this and will not open.
I have also tried reinstalling my software and that did not help a thing.
Thanks, I hope you can help.
-Joe M.
[760 byte] By [
JoeM.] at [2007-12-22]
Can you try running:
vbexpress /resetsettings
This wil reset the window layouts to the default state.
Hope this helps,
Thank you for replying.
I made it a shortcut to my desktop and on the properties, I put the target as: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\vbexpress.exe" /resetsettings
It reset the settings, but I still unfortunately have the same error when I try to go to Search.
Does anyone have some more suggestions, or know why I might be having this problem?
Thanks.
Could someone help me, please?
I would really like to have my Search back as it is very hard to find help like that without it.
Help is on the way... I've tracked down the owners of this feature, and they will follow up.
--Matt--*
Thank you very much, Matt.
I have never seen this exception. Can you tell me a bit about your machine setup? As in what OS are you running it, and what Windows Theme are you running it under?
Additionally, can you logon on the machine as a different user, and see if search works correct? This will let up know if it is a user settnig issue (and we can work on fixing the settings) or if it is a machine wide issue.
--
Regards,
Saurabh
PS: - Developer Documentation and Help System (http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=66&SiteID=1) is a better forum to post issues around Help.
Ok, I have tried it on the other user and it still has the same error unfortunately.
I am running WinXP. But, a few weeks ago I did try Windows Blinds (A theme changer) and I uninstalled it later that day. I cannot rememeber if I had this problem after installing that, or if I already had it before I installed Windows Blinds. I am back to the regular theme now.
Thanks.
Can you try switching to Windows Classics mode (which should disable XP theming) and see if it makes any difference?
Also, can you try launching "\program files\common files\microsoft shared\help 8\dexplore.exe" from the command line and try bringing "Search" Window there and see if it launches from there.
Thanks for your help, but I turned the Win XP theming off, ran it regularly... And then ran it from the command prompt (using "cd" - change directory to navigate to it) and it brings up the search screen, but it just has the Index/MSDN on the side with nothing in the middle about searching on those 4 websites/places. And it still gives that same "...Threw an exception" error. 
It will be a little inconvinent, but I will try installing VisBasic 2005 to my other laptop and use it on there as needed.
Again, thanks for your help Saurabh.
Ok, I have uninstalled and then reinstalled VB 2005 and it now gives me a different error when I try to open search.
"Package 'Visual Studio Common IDE Package' failed to load"
Why is it doing this!? Even after I reinstalled it...
Sorry to keep going on this topic, but I would REALLY like to have my search back (My programming has pretty much come to a halt) So, if anyone knows anything more about this, please help.
EDIT: Now I can't open OR start a new project. Why is it doing this if I even reinstalled VB? :(
Did you have a beta version of VBExpress or any other VS 2005 product on this machine?
Also, can you try setting Help to Internal Help Viewer (in VB Express, go Tools->Options->Environment->General->Help) and restart VB Express. See if Search loads internally.
--
Regards,
Saurabh
Ok, I just did a system restore... And then I forgot to restart my computer when I did a reinstall on VB (I must have missed that screen) but when I turned on my computer the next day... Everything was fixed and worked perfectly! :)
Again, thank you very much for your help, Saurabh.
