Visual Studio freezes when switching to debug mode

Strange Visual Studio (TS 2008) problem: The IDE completely freezes whenever I switch from Release to Debug mode in a specific project. It happens right as I switch, before I try to build or do anything else.

The whole thing started out of the blue, without any abnormal change I can think of. I tried to clean the solution, but it didn't help.

Anyone ran into this before?

回答1:

If everything has worked fine and then stopped, usually it means there was some problem even though it had passed unnoticed.

Things I would try one after another:

Check which files were changed (why and how) after update from a source control engine
Review the list of extensions and plugins. Try to disable all or some of them
Close Visual Studio and kill all the development processes: devenv, mspdbsrv, vcpkgsrv, msbuild, msvsmon, vshub, vstest etc
Remove .suo, .ncb, .VC.db, .VC.VC.opendb files of the solution as well as .vs directory, which sometimes cause problems
Remove project setting files, sort of YourProjectName.vcproj.DOMAINNAME.LOGINNAME.user or YourProjectName.csproj.user. The setting file name depends on a project kind you use
Run "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio [vs_version]\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" /setup or "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio [vs_version]\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" /setup for x64 environment
In some complex cases, it helps to remove user settings, located in home %USERPROFILE%\AppData\[Local|Roaming]\Microsoft\VisualStudio[vs_version] and in registry HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio[vs_version]

It should reset all things to the beginning state. If it won't work, so there are additional tools to investigate. Download Process Explorer and once IDE freezes, start the Process Explorer, find the devenv process, double-click on it and go to Threads tab. Check, which thread has the biggest switch delta in case of the freeze, double-click on it and take the name (or offset) of the top function. It gives additional info where the problem may be.

Moreover, sometimes it helps to repair Visual Studio in the "Add or Remove Programs" wizard in Control Panel.

回答2:

Had this problem in 2017. I ran VS 2017 as Administrator and it worked.

回答3:

I've encountered this in VS 2017 (15.8). Upgrade to the newest version (15.9 at that time) resolved the issue.