index > Visual Studio Tools for Office > Problems with VSTO 2005

Problems with VSTO 2005

Hello.

I'm trying to look at some samples of using VSTO 2005 ( e.g. Microsoft's VSTO - Outlook Hands on Lab ) but am getting the following error when loading the solution:

The project file 'C:Program Files... ...\HandsOnLab.Lab1.csproj' cannot be opened.
The project type is not supported by this installation.

I've got VS 2005 Professional Edition Version 8.0.50727.42 and Office 2003 Professional Edition SP2 installed.

Also i've installed the Office 2003 PIA's and VSTO 2005.

Any ideas on what i'm missing?

Thanks,
Paul

Paul_French

Is the project not opened at all, or is it opened - but invalid?

Do you have a pointer to where you got the samples, maybe some of us can have a look but it would be easier to find out what you are using with a link to the labs.

-= Maarten =-

Software Engineer * MVP-Visual Developer-VSTO

Maarten van Stam

It's not opened ( shown as unavailable - The project file cannot be loaded. ).

I'm pretty sure the issue is with my VSTO installation rather than the labs.

Paul_French

Do you have VSTO 2005 installed with Visual Studio? Just to get the question out of the way. Thanks.

OmegaMan

I've ran the vstor.exe application, which to my understanding is supposed to install VSTO 2005.

Paul_French

Try to create a new project, say an Excel project to see if you get the same problem. Follow these steps

File->New Project
Open Visual C#

OmegaMan

There's no Office node - is vstor.exe the correct install app?

Paul_French

Did you download this item or is it off of a disk? VSTO 2005 is not a downloadable product. If you did download you don't have VSTO addin needed to run the VSTO 2005 examples or create a VSTO project. Check the readme file to verify which item you have.

OmegaMan

Hi Paul

No, vstor.exe is the RUNTIME distributable. You put this on client machines as part of the setup installation so that a VSTO solution can be deployed. It's not the full development IDE.

You need to purchase VSTO as a separate product. See the following page for a comparison of the Visual Studio IDE products.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/products/compare/default.aspx

-- Cindy Meister (Word MVP)

Cindy Meister

Thanks for that Cindy - i thought the file was a touch small! I'll get the actual IDE and go from there...

Paul_French

reply 10