Microsoft KB Archive/255252

= Description of the performance problems of building projects over a network in Visual C++ =

Article ID: 255252

Article Last Modified on 4/26/2006

-

APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
 * Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2003 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Enterprise Edition
 * Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 Enterprise Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Express Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System Architect Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System Developer Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation
 * Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System Test Edition

-



This article was previously published under Q255252



SUMMARY
Microsoft Visual C++ was not specifically designed and tested to access and build projects directly over a network. If you try to perform these tasks with Visual C++, you will experience problems with building and performance. Visual C++ does not perform any special operations to accommodate network drives and shares, and it is unaware of whether the file it is reading or writing is on a network drive or a local drive. Use of Visual C++ in this manner is not supported.



MORE INFORMATION
You will experience performance problems when you use Visual C++ to access projects in the following configurations:
 * Share a Visual C++ project on a Windows 98-based computer. On a computer running Windows NT 4.0, use Visual C++ to open the shared project. From the FileView tab, select a file and double-click to open it. You will experience a delay. This is due to the fact that Windows 98 is a nonopportunistic locking server. (If the same project is shared from Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000, you might not experience this problem.)
 * Share a Visual C++ project on a Windows 98-based computer. On a computer running Windows NT 4.0, map the share to a drive. Open the project from the mapped drive using Visual C++. You will notice that Visual C++ accesses the project's source and header files approximately every 4 seconds. (If the same project is shared from Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000, you might not experience this problem.)

There may be several other network configurations under which Visual C++ performance could suffer. For example, you may be using SAMBA to obtain files from remote UNIX computers. SAMBA is a file service that attempts to emulate Windows server message block (SMB) network file protocol.

Microsoft recommends that you use source code control software to obtain a local copy of projects for use with Visual C++. Microsoft Visual SourceSafe is source code control software that is optimized for use with Visual C++. There are other source code control software packages available, but they may not be optimized for use with Visual C++, so you may run into performance problems. In such cases, contact the vendor of the source code control software for assistance.

