BACKGROUND
Well, if you are like me, you downloaded the Express version of Visual Studio 2008 because you were too impatient to wait the 3 days for the DVD to arrive in the mail. Then it arrived and took 10 years to install, and after firing up Visual Studio 2008, you get a “Package Load Failure” siting Microsoft.VisualStudio.Xaml. Afterwords, you notice there is no XAML intellisense. After a brief bout of insanity – running around screaming, chewing on the cat’s leg, sending the children to bed at 3pm – you then calmly search the web.
FIX
I removed the express editions. No Go.
I ran the repairs suggested here. No go (and, my default key in my registry was not blank, so I was just trying it because I could).
I ran the devenv.exe /setup suggested here (found it buried in an article):
“If you are still hitting this, I just found a fix. Using cmd, navigate to the Visual Studio 2008 (9.0) folder in the Program Files folder. cd to Common7\IDE. Type, “devenv.exe /setup”
You can open taskmgr to monitor the devenv process. When it’s done, just reopen visual studio and xml should start rendering. At least it worked for me. Good luck.”
I deleted the toolbar temp files (and I can’t find the link – sorry) which are located in C:\Documents and Settings under your username, then look under Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0 (or something similar) and delete the .tbd files there. No go
What worked for me was to download and re-run Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1
Now it could JUST be SP1, or maybe a combination of steps – so I would recommend running the last three. Of course if this obliterates your system, then I am not liable…all this stuff is DO AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Enjoy the XAML Goodness (or so I hope)!
SP1 solved the problem on my computer.
Just reinstalled SP1. Worked for me, no other steps necessary.
I think the problem occurred because I was installing over an existing Visual Studio installation.
Thanks!
I have this problem and it was a clean installation of Windows Server 2008. I didn’t install over anything. This is bull. Microsoft needs to test the final version of their products before they ship them.
Yeah, but the cornerstone of their billion dollar empire is to release first and patch like mad :-/. Hope the SP-1 trick helped…