Troubleshooting Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio Installation Failures

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The latest version of the Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio and the Windows Azure SDK along with their system requirements and pre-requisites are available on the Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio download page. 

Windows Vista SP1 is available here.

The Windows Azure Tools installer extends Visual Studio 2008 Professional and above, Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition and Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1. 

When Visual Studio 2008 is installed, all of the pre-requisites for extending Visual Studio 2008 must be met (notably Visual Studio 2008 SP1) otherwise the installation will stop with an error.

If a pre-requisite to extend Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 is missing, the installer will warn the user that the Tools will not be installed for Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 but will continue to install the Tools for Visual Studio 2008 if applicable.

The following are instructions for resolving installation errors due to missing pre-requisites.

The Windows Azure SDK requires Internet Information Service 7.0 with ASP.Net Application Development components installed.

Please follow the following instructions for installing IIS7 with ASP.Net and enabling WCF HTTP Activation:

Windows Vista

  • From the Start menu, choose Settings | Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features.
  • Click Turn Windows Features On or Off.
  • Under Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0, select Windows Communication Foundation HTTP Activation.
  • Under Internet Information Services, expand World Wide Web Services, then Application Development Features, then select ASP.NET and CGI.
  • Install the selected features.

Windows Server 2008

  • From the Start menu, choose Programs | Administrative Tools | Server Manager.
  • In Server Manager, under Features Summary, choose Add Features.
  • In the Add Features dialog, under.NET Framework 3.0 Features, select the .NET Framework 3.0. Under WCF Activation, select HTTP Activation. Click the Next button to install.
  • In Server Manager, under Roles Summary, verify that Web Server (IIS) appears in the list of available roles. If it does not, click Add Roles to install Internet Information Services.
  • In Server Manager, under Roles Summary, click Web Server (IIS).
  • In the Web Server (IIS) management window, click Add Role Services.
  • In the Add Role Services dialog, expand Web Server, then Application Development, select ASP.NET and CGI and click the Next button to install.

Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio requires either Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (Standard or above) or Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition with SP1

Please install Visual Studio 2008 and upgrade to Service Pack 1 or install Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express with SP1.

Visual Studio 2008 is currently installed but this product requires Service Pack 1. Please install SP1 and try again.

Please upgrade to Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1.

Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition is currently installed but this product requires Service Pack 1.  Please install Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition with SP1 and try again.

Please install Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express with SP1.

Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio requires the Visual Web Developer feature to be installed in Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (Standard or above).

  • To install the Visual Web Developer feature:
  • Open the Control Panel to Programs and Features
  • Click on Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and select “Uninstall/Change”. This will bring up the Visual Studio Setup Wizard. 
  • Click Next
  • Click Add or Remove Features
  • Under Microsoft Visual Studio | Language Tools click to select “Visual Web Developer”

Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio Repair cannot find the installation package

To work around this issue, please uninstall and reinstall Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio.