An update to Visual Studio 2005 (VS 2005) that brings compatibility with Windows Vista is now available for download. The update, which requires Visual Studio 2005 SP1, fixes a number of bugs that made VS 2005 difficult to use on Windows Vista and is not necessary for developers using Windows XP. The combination of VS 2005, SP1, and the update is the only version of Visual Studio supported on Vista.

Vista introduced a number of architectural changes that affected VS 2005—most notably, User Account Control (UAC), a feature that allows users to run with less than full administrative privileges, and to elevate their privileges temporarily as needed. When a user attempts to perform an action that requires administrative privileges, such as changing network settings or installing an application, Vista presents a dialog box asking the user to authorize the task. Depending on the OS configuration, the user may be able to simply click OK or may have to enter a password. UAC makes tasks such as debugging nearly impossible.

Even with the update, a developer must still have Administrator privileges and use Vista's "Run as administrator" feature to perform some tasks.

Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Update for Windows Vista is available at www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=90e2942d-3ad1-4873-a2ee-4acc0aace5b6.

A Knowledge Base article describing the update is at support.microsoft.com/?kbid=929470.