Install Visual Studio 2005 on Windows 8

Question

I am currently working on a long-term project for which I need Visual Studio 2005, 2008, 2012 (2010 not necessary). Right now I have Windows 7, but I would really like to upgrade. Is it possible to install all of those versions of Visual Studio on Windows 8?

2012 can obviously installed (and takes away the need for 2010). I already found reports that 2008 is also possible if the 3.5 framework is enabled through Windows Features, but I'm unsure about Visual Studio 2005.

Is it possible and does anybody have any experience with this?

PS: Do not come with solutions as "Why still use 2005, 2008, ...", I really need it.

Solution 1

Download Windows 8 Enterprise Evaluation and install to VMWare or Virtual Box. It's a 3 month trial and would allow you to test VS2005 plus the others. Once downloaded, it's a fast install. You can download from here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/jj554510.aspx

Solution 2

After installing it on VMWare (Virtualbox gives errors) I've enabled framework 3.5 (which indeed contains 2.0 and 2.5). After that I've installed Visual Studio C# Express Edition. During installation and startup of VS it gives a lot of "This program has been known for comptability problems" warnings and they offer to search help online or to run it as usual. I've always opted to let it run as usual. It installed fine and I could compile and run a Visual C# Windows application.

Solution 3

Visual Studio 2005 Standard installed mostly fine for me. I installed it on Windows 8 on an x64 CPU. It complained a bunch about "known compatibility issues," but if I told it to carry on everything seemed to go fine. The only catch was that "Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition x64" failed to install. Also, I had to run Visual Studio as administrator the first time so it could finish its setup, but after that I've just run it with my normal account.

Solution 4

For an install of Visual Studio 2005 on Windows 7 as well as Windows 8 I install three things: (1) Visual Studio 2005, (2) Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1, and (3) Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista.

The Visual Studio 2005 service packs can be a bit difficult to locate on Microsoft's web site since everything is really about Visual Studio 2012 and later.

When installing Visual Studio 2005, there will be a number of Incompatible warnings displayed. I just click through them to get to the end.

Also I do a custom install and do not install some components: (1) Crystal Reports and (2) SQL Server 2005 Express Edition.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite Service Pack 1 which seems to be for all editions of Visual Studio 2005 including Professional Edition which I use.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista is required to update Service Pack 1 to work with Windows Vista and later.

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Comments

[MartenBE]

The downloadmanager keeps getting stuck after about 30 seconds.

[U1199880]

I can't help you that! Just keep giving it a go.

[MartenBE]

Found it: their downloadmanager isn't fond of Pale Moon. Using Internet Explorer allows the download to continue.

[Geethanga]

So what will be the final conclusion?

[MartenBE]

The conclusion is that it works on windows 8, despite that it will complain a lot during install about comptability issues. You can ignore those complains