Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint 1.2 and x64 Development Environments

There has been lots of talk of using x64 servers for SharePoint. So naturally there has also been lots of talk about using x64 for SharePoint development environments.

Currently the Visual Studio 2008 extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, v1.2 do not install on an x64 operating system and the download page contains the following note:

Note: This download does not work with an x64 OS. We currently recommend a x86 development machine for SharePoint development when targeting x64 OS for test and production. Output binaries are all .NET assemblies so you can reasonably expect all .NET assemblies built on the x86 dev box to still work on your x86 OS test and production machines. The CLR will JIT compile the .NET assembly on each target machine and will optimize for x64 OS when run on that architecture. Testing on x64 after doing development on x86 is still recommended.

Nevertheless, this remains one of the top requests for SharePoint developers and so we are currently looking at options for addressing it. Currently we would recommend Visual Studio 2008 with the Visual Studio 2008 extensions for Windows SharePoint Services for all SharePoint development and that means using x86 for your development environment. That's the best option for development now with the best migration path going forward.

Meanwhile if there's something you need assistance with in the Visual Studio extensions for SharePoint the best place to ask is the SharePoint Development and Programming Forums on MSDN.

Comments

• Anonymous
  August 15, 2008
  There has been lots of talk of using x64 servers for SharePoint. So naturally there has also been lots

• Anonymous
  August 15, 2008
  There has been lots of talk of using x64 servers for SharePoint. So naturally there has also been lots

• Anonymous
  August 16, 2008
  It's unfortunate that x64 environments have not been considered for development in the first place.  It's absolutely natural to develop on 64-bit systems once they have been deployed in production environment.  (In most cases it's actually the other way round, don't you agree?) Anyway, my colleagues an I can't wait to get our hands on the extensions for our 64-bit development environments so we don't have to do all the dirty work manually any more. Thanks

• Anonymous
  August 21, 2008
  Will there ever be first class support for Sharepoint built into Visual Studio?  More along the lines of WSPBuilder. Thanks

• Anonymous
  October 09, 2008
  sad for days... I just installed and configured Server 2008 x64 with Studio 2008.  The Sharepoint extensions were the last thing to install and now... no go. Hopefully this is a top priority so I can use my Server 2008 x64 installed laptop to do dev with on the road. Oh well hopefully soon.

• Anonymous
  October 13, 2008
  Hi Dave, Yes it's a top priority. Sorry you didn't find out this limitation earlier. Cheers, Paul