u/mbolp

I've been using Visual Studio since VS2019. The intervening releases (VS2022 and VS2026) don't feel much different to me, they all have the same problems:

• Editing too many files (a few dozen) causes either devenv.exe or vcpkgsrv.exe to consume abnormally high CPU. I must close all files (and lose undo history) to get them back to normal
• Constantly trying to ping the internet. For example BackgroundDownload.exe randomly consumes 20% CPU despite being blocked by the firewall, deleted from task scheduler, and disabled in the registry. VS2026 even has a "retirement" date, a popup informed me today that I'll no longer be able to use it past that date without updating.

I've heard good words about old versions of VS, but I don't know if they are still usable today. The most important to me is using them with the newest compiler and toolset. Existing solutions also need to be made compatible with old formats. Does anyone still use old VS, what's the experience like? Are there features you miss?

I have a function that takes a callback, like this:

void LongTask (void (*pfn)(int))
{
    for ( unsigned i = 0; i < -1; ++i )
    {
        pfn( i );
    }
}

It's orginally written to be ran on a separate thread. Now I want to turn it into a coroutine that yields on each callback (i.e. the caller will receive a single callback on each invocation of LongTask), while preserving its ability to run as a standalone function. Additionally it's OK for the coroutine to allocate memory but not to throw exceptions (if it can't allocate I should get back a null pointer at creation time). And preferrably it wouldn't require the CRT, all support functions should be contained in a header only include. What's the best way to do this, can it be done with C++20 coroutines?

If I edit a header file in Visual Studio, all cpp files that include it are automatically recompiled. But if I edit a cpp file included in another cpp file, that other file is not recompiled. How can I specify that one cpp file depends on another?

I'm trying to build a program without the CRT using /NODEFAULTLIB. The linker says one particular object file has

>error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "void __cdecl operator delete(void *,unsigned __int64)" (??3@YAXPEAX_K@Z)

But I don't call new or delete in this file (or anywhere else). It has a few references to placement new and explicit destructor calls (e.g. new( &Object ) CObject; Object.~CObject( )), but I use those in other files and they don't have link errors. I looked at the assembly listing with /FAs and found no occurrence of either calls to operator delete or the string "??3@YAXPEAX_K@Z" (though I did find the latter in the object file). The only standard C++ headers I include are <type_traits> and <algorithm>, but I don't call anything from them in this file and they don't cause problems in other files. What could be referencing operator delete with a size argument?

My host computer is Windows 11 23H2. I've tried debugging Windows Sandbox and a Hyper-V Windows 11 virtual machine via a COM port using kd.exe. Whenever I break into the debugger, a process named vmmem (or vmmemSandbox in the case of Windows Sandbox) starts consuming nearly 100% CPU, making the debugger basically unusable. If I suspend the process most debugger commands hang. Also while kd is waiting for a connection I can't exit. Ctrl-C, Ctrl-Break, q, none of them work (the command is kd -k com:pipe,port=\\.\pipe\TestPipe,resets=0,reconnect). What am I doing wrong?

Both VS2019 and VS2022 highlight items (including the current line in the code editor plus selected items in tool windows such as solution explorer or find results) by coloring the entire line:

https://preview.redd.it/vxm6tgx72t6h1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=47a44f4969d829e7eab53fc1c0085e5b472de224

I upgraded to VS2026, now items are highlighted with a tiny bar to the left:

https://preview.redd.it/yxr40qi92t6h1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=382faaa0c73b9105ad4ff9687a0e558dd3500cca

This is very difficult to see. Both screenshots use identical settings and themes (high contrast). How to revert this behavior?

Also semi related, the window frame is colored differently in VS2026. This doesn't impact usability but I'd prefer the old colors if possible (I imported all settings from VS2022 with no changes).