Visual Studio 2005 is supported on Windows 7 with the same limitations described in this article and the related pages. To use Visual Studio 2005 on Windows 7 you will need to install both Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 and the Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista.
The release of the Windows Vista operating system represents a significant opportunity for developers to build the next generation of applications that deliver compelling user experiences. We want to help you take advantage of this opportunity and assist you in developing and delivering Windows Vista based software faster, more cost effectively, and with greater impact than ever before.
During the development of Windows Vista, several key investments were made to vastly improve overall quality, security, and reliability from previous versions of Windows. We’re also testing to ensure that your .NET Framework 1.1 and 2.0 applications will work on Windows Vista so that your existing applications will continue to run as expected.
While we have made tremendous investments in Windows Vista to ensure backwards compatibility, some of the system enhancements, such as User Account Control, changes to the networking stack, and the new graphics model, make Windows Vista behave differently from previous versions of Windows.
The changes impact Visual Studio and thus we're unable to support Visual Studio .NET 2002 or Visual Studio .NET 2003 on Windows Vista.
However, your existing .NET Framework 1.1 and 2.0 based applications will continue to work on Windows Vista, and will be able to take advantage of many of the new features available to Windows Vista applications.
For more information about the impact of Windows Vista on Visual Studio please check:
Microsoft released Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 and Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista that together address areas of Visual Studio impacted by Windows Vista enhancements. For more information, see Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1. To submit feedback on the Visual Studio on Windows Vista issue lists, or to report new issues, please visit Microsoft Connect.