Tips and Tricks for:  VB.Net, C#

The Problem:   Controls disappear causing seemingly random errors in multi-project WinForms solutions.

Sometimes your solution compiles, but often after a successful compile errors appear in the Task List, seemingly at random.  Often the message is that "Control (xxxxx) does not exist". This happens most but not necessarily all of the time.  It's more common in VB.Net projects than in C# projects.  It also happens more often as the solution grows in size.

Solution: Call Microsoft Product Services and get the HotFix.

Microsoft has a HotFix for this problem described in Knowledge Base article 822690.  This cleared up the problem instantly.  And oh-boy was this the most frustrating and annoying of problems.  You'd change something and think that you made the problem go away only to have it crop back up soon after.

Although my general rule of thumb is to assume that any error is my error, every once in a while, the compiler is at fault.  I only wish that they'd issue the Visual Studio 2003 service pack that the Knowledge base article describes.