.Net source code debugging

Shockingly, Microsoft released the entire .Net framework source code a few weeks ago. More here. This is really amazing; a great, great move. A full downloable version will come out soon. It'll really help debugging, and gives me better visibility in the inner workings of various components. I don't have to use my favorite decompiler anymore, and even have access to developer comments. I'm also hoping it'll speed up Mono project development.

I did run into some difficulties installing the hotfix though, kept getting a fatal error. Turns out that it had to do with my having Orcas Beta2 installed a while ago. I read a post mentioning I just needed to insert the original install DVD and everything should work OK, but that didn't work for me. I finally figured it out, so hopefully this will save you a 1 hour headache.

Here were my original VS 2008 install steps:

- Installed Orcas Beta 2.
- Removed Orcas Beta 2.
- Downloaded VS 2008 ISO from MSDN.
- Burned DVD from ISO.
- Installed VS 2008 Team System from DVD.
- 2 weeks later, received MSDN DVD and threw away my burned copy.
- When trying to install the VS 2008 QFE, inserting the MSDN DVD doesn't solve the problem.

It turned out that the downable ISO and the mailed DVD don't have the same file structure. The hotfix tries to find the original vs_setup.msi. In the ISO, it's located under D:\vs_setup.exe (where D is my DVD drive), but on the shipped DVD it's D:\vs\vs_setup.exe. So the solution was to re-download VS 2008 ISO from MSDN web site, re-burn it to DVD and insert it. One I did that, everything worked fine.