To uninstall Visual Studio 2008 BETA2 before you install the final version of Visual Studio 2008

Several people asked me the best way to upgrade from VS 2008 Beta2 to the final version of VS 2008 RTM. I am here to offer some suggestions:

A lot of people asked me how to upgrade from the early beta version of Visual Studio 2008. Generally speaking, I suggest you uninstall BETA2 first. As part of the uninstall, you should uninstall the Visual Studio 2008 Beta2,.net Framework Beta2 and the Visual Studio Web authoring Component, which are separate installations that need to be unloaded separately. After that, I usually recommend that you reboot the machine after uninstalling to make sure the machine is in a clean state before you install something new. You can then install the final version of VS 2008 and. NET 3.5 on the machine.

After installation, I usually recommend that you run the "Tools-> Introduction and Output Settings" menu option, select the "Reset Settings" option, and then select the configuration you like. This helps ensure that the old configuration of the Beta2 version is removed (and sometimes helps improve performance).

Several people have pointed out that there are some other small installation packages that were installed when you installed Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 o'clock, and you should uninstall (not always, but for security or uninstall). Here you can find a complete list of these other installation packages as well as uninstall instructions.

The following is a complete list of BETA2 components that may need to be uninstalled (and the recommended order for uninstalling these components):

Uninstall the MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2008 Beta

Uninstall the Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5

Uninstall the Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 Design Tools

Uninstall the Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 for Devices

Uninstall the Microsoft Visual Studio performance Collection Tools

Uninstall the Windows Mobile 5.0 SDK R2 for Pocket PC

Uninstall the Windows Mobile 5.0 SDK R2 for Smartphone

Uninstall "Crystal Reports 2007"

Uninstall the Visual Studio Asset System

Uninstall the Microsoft Visual Studio Web Authoring component/microsoft Web Designer Tools

Uninstall Microsoft Visual Studio the 2007 Microsoft Office System Runtime

Uninstall Microsoft Visual Studio the 2007 Microsoft Office System Runtime Language Pack (non-english editions Only

Uninstall the Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Office Runtime 3.0

Uninstall Microsoft Document Explorer

Uninstall the Microsoft Document Explorer Language Pack (non-english editions only)

Uninstall the Microsoft Device Emulator 3.0

Uninstall the Microsoft. NET Compact Framework 3.5

Uninstall the Microsoft. NET Compact Framework 2.0 SP1

Uninstall the. NET Framework 2.0 SDK

Uninstall the Microsoft Visual Studio codename Orcas Remote Debugger

Uninstall "Microsoft Visual Studio 64bit Prerequisites Beta" (64-bit platforms only)

Uninstall the Microsoft. NET Framework 3.5

After you have finished uninstalling the above components, I recommend that you restart the machine before you start installing the VS 2008 and. NET 3.5 final versions to ensure that there are no remnants of the BETA2 installation status on the machine.