Visual Build Pro 7

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Existing projects created in Visual Build v4 and later can be loaded by Visual Build v8. The file schema has changed, so projects saved in the new version will not load or build correctly in earlier versions. Project files created with Visual Build v3 and earlier should be opened and saved in Visual Build Pro v7 before opening in v8.

•	Visual Build v8 does not support Windows 2000. Windows XP or later is required.

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Visual Build Pro version 8 can be installed side-by-side with previous versions. The default installation path is C:\Program Files\VisBuildPro8 rather than C:\Program Files\VisBuildPro7. Scheduled tasks, command (.cmd) scripts, batch (.bat) files, and Windows shortcuts that specify a full path for launching Visual Build will need to be adjusted for the new installation path (operations that do not specify a path [i.e., start VisBuildPro, double-clicking a .bld file, etc.] will launch the most recently installed version of Visual Build Pro).

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The default application data folder is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Kinook Software\Visual Build Professional 8 rather than C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Kinook Software\Visual Build Professional 7. During installation, any configuration files in the version 4/5/6/7 application data folder or install path will be copied to the version 8 folder. Also, the registry key to override the default application data path is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Kinook Software\Visual Build Professional 8\ConfigFilesPath rather than HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Kinook Software\Visual Build Professional 7\ConfigFilesPath.

•	Some obsolete actions are no longer displayed by default (existing steps for these actions will still be displayed in the Step panes and will build normally). To show all hidden actions, right-click in the Actions pane and choose Show Hidden.

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In Visual Build v8, the Sign Code action calls signtool.exe for signing. The action will attempt to automatically locate signtool.exe in a Microsoft Windows SDK installation or the Visual Build Tools path. If not found, either install the Tools option of the Microsoft Windows SDK or reinstall Visual Build and select Full installation.

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When opening projects in the 64-bit edition of Visual Build, ZIP Files and UNZIP Files actions will be converted to Enhanced Zip Files and Enhanced Unzip Files actions if possible, since the older compression actions are not available in the 64-bit edition. The conversion is only performed for steps that do not use options available only in the older actions, such as TAR/GZ compression, short filenames, or clearing of the archive flag. Steps that use these options will need to be replaced manually in order to build properly in the 64-bit edition.

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All Visual Build COM components, type libraries, ProgIDs, and interface GUIDs are different in version 8. User action components will need to be updated to reference the Visual Build Professional 8 Server type library and recompiled in order to work with version 8. Script code that uses ProgIDs of "VisBuildSvr7.Application" and/or "VisBuildSvr7.Builder" will need to be modified to use "VisBuildSvr8.Application" and/or "VisBuildSvr8.Builder" instead (or the version-independent ProgIds "VisBuildSvr.Application" and "VisBuildSvr.Builder").

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In previous versions, all script code used the US English locale. In v8, all script code uses the currently configured Windows locale by default. This can affect display of error messages, formatting and conversion of date/time values, etc. To revert to the old behavior, add a Run Script step to the beginning of the project with the code Application.Options.UseUSEnglishLocaleForScriptEngine = True.

•	Several obsolete system script functions are no longer included in system scripts. Either convert your projects to use the replacement actions documented here, or copy the script code from that topic into your global script code.

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The following actions no longer use the DOTNET_DIR and DOTNETSDK_DIR macros to locate the .NET command-line executables. Instead, the actions look for the latest installed .NET Framework or SDK path, or the path+filename of the executable to call can be specified in the Override field on the action's Options tab: COM Register, Export Type Library, GAC Install, Generate Resource Files, Import Type Library, Install .NET Services, PEVerify, Strong Name Tool, WSDL, XSD.

•	The SSHELPER tool is no longer installed with Visual Build 8. Either replace calls to this tool with the SourceSafe action or download it from here.

•	Actions are now registered under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Kinook Software\Visual Build Professional 8\Actions rather than HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Kinook Software\Visual Build Professional\Actions. The COM Register action in version 8 registers actions at this location.

•	Custom logging components are now registered under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Kinook Software\Visual Build Professional 8\Logging rather than HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Kinook Software\Visual Build Professional 7\Logging.