Installation

System Requirements

• Windows 2003 Server
• Windows XP Professional
• Windows XP Home Edition
• Windows XP Media Center Edition
• Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
• Windows 2000 Server (Service Pack 3 or later)
• Windows 2000 Professional (Service Pack 3 or later)

Visual Sidekick requires the following components to be installed:

• Internet Explorer 4.0 or later.
• Visual C++ 5, Visual C++ 6, Visual Studio .NET 2002, Visual Studio .NET 2003 or Visual Studio 2005 (2005 Express Editions are not supported).

To install Visual Sidekick, the user must have administrator priviledges. After installation non-administrator users may make use of Visual Sidekick.

Compatibility of Visual Sidekick 3 with Previous Versions of Visual Sidekick

Visual Sidekick 3 totally replaces all previous versions of Visual Sidekick and is not compatible with these versions. 

All older versions must be uninstalled prior to installing Visual Sidekick 3.

Older versions of Visual Sidekick that must be uninstalled include:

• Visual Sidekick (version 1.0)
• Visual Sidekick for Visual C++ 6 (version 1.1)
• Visual Sidekick .NET (version 2.0)

Installation

Installing for the first time

If Visual Sidekick 3 has never been installed on the computer before...

1. Make sure there are no instances of Visual Studio (devenv.exe) running.
2. Run the Visual Sidekick installer.
3. Launch Visual Studio. Visual Sidekick will show a Welcome dialog and then prompt you to apply various keybindings. Visual Sidekick works optimally with these keybindings applied. We strongly recommend applying the bindings at this stage.
4. Load any solution and Visual Sidekick will parse it automatically.

Upgrading from an old version of Visual Sidekick (version 2.0 or earlier) to Visual Sidekick 3

If an older version of Visual Sidekick (Visual Sidekick 1.0, Visual Sidekick for Visual C++ 6 or Visual Sidekick .NET) is installed on the computer, this version must be uninstalled prior to installing Visual Sidekick 3.

1. Make sure there are no instances of Visual Studio (devenv.exe) running.
2. Goto Control Panel/Add Remove Programs, and uninstall all versions of Visual Sidekick ("Visual Sidekick", "Visual Sidekick for Visual C++ 6" and "Visual Sidekick .NET").
3. Run the Visual Sidekick 3 installer.
4. Launch Visual Studio - Visual Sidekick 3 will now be installed.

Upgrading to a new build of Visual Sidekick 3

1. Make sure there are no instances of Visual Studio (devenv.exe) running.
2. Run the Visual Sidekick 3 installer.
3. Launch Visual Studio - Visual Sidekick will activate with your previous settings unaffected.

Installing for a second user on a single computer:

1. Log on as the new user.
2. Launch Visual Studio. Visual Sidekick will show a Welcome dialog and then prompt you to apply various keybindings. Visual Sidekick works optimally with these keybindings applied. We strongly recommend applying the bindings at this stage.
3. Load any solution and Visual Sidekick will parse it automatically.