On occasion, I get the following error in design mode of some user controls in Visual Studio 2008:
The file 'UserControl.vb' does not support code parsing or generation because it is not contained within a project that supports code.
It doesn't happen on a consistent basis, but it happens enough to be annoying. Are there any common causes of this error?
And yes, it is in a project that supports code - last I checked, WinForms projects typically have code in them!
Note that there is a Microsoft Connect issue on this: https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=366006
It is a bug in VS. It happens in VS2005 as well.
Don't waste your time: close VS, open it again and everything should work fine.
I had reverted (through source control) changes to my project file, which removed the file from my solution (specifically the .Designer file). However, I still had the file open in Visual Studio and attempting to show the designer for it caused this error.
I clicked the "Show All Files" button at the top of Solution Explorer, found the files that weren't included. Right-clicking and selecting "Include in Project" and rebuilding fixed the issue for me.