I have a particular machine that has had some issues when trying to use a few VS 2008 features. If you come across this post searching for answers hopefully it will save you some time. Hopefully this post will save me some time too, because my chronic amnesia tends to have me forget all but the last 30 seconds of my life. :)
The fix first: For both issues here, I needed to uninstall all VS 2008 add-on components (like EF, EF tools, Ajax, .NET 3.5 preview, etc...) VS 2008 itself, then .NET Framework 3.5. Then I reinstalled VS 2008, which reinstalled the framework. After that I could install the later components/add ons.
The "whys" next: I had at least the last VS 2008 Beta on this machine, and it seems that both problems are tied to it. I did follow all instructions for uninstalling and reinstalling VS 2008 as is posted at ScottGu's blog which I'll repost here:
"Installation Suggestions
People often ask me for suggestions on how best to upgrade from previous betas of Visual Studio 2008. In general I'd recommend uninstalling the Beta2 bits explicitly. As part of this you should uninstall Visual Studio 2008 Beta2, .NET Framework Beta2, as well as the Visual Studio Web Authoring Component (these are all separate installs and need to be uninstalled separately). I then usually recommend rebooting the machine after uninstalling just to make sure everything is clean before you kick off the new install. You can then install the final release of VS 2008 and .NET 3.5 on the machine.
Once installed, I usually recommend explicitly running the Tools->Import and Export Settings menu option, choosing the "Reset Settings" option, and then re-pick your preferred profile. This helps ensure that older settings from the Beta2 release are no longer around (and sometimes seems to help with performance).
Note that VS 2008 runs side-by-side with VS 2005 - so it is totally fine to have both on the same machine (you will not have any problems with them on the same box). "
The errors:
1) Visual Studio 2008 Designer error: "method not found Boolean system.web.ui.design.viewrendering.get_visible()"
Upon opening an .aspx page and trying to use either the full Design tab or the Split tab, I would get this error inside a small gray box for each control instead of that control's design surface rendering. After some searching, I came upon this bug report on MS Connect, which had two options - 1) uninstall all things related to VS 2008 and resinstall, (and what's more fun than that?) or 2) Wait for Vista SP1 or install what version of SP1 beta/ctp is available now, which will require you to un/reinstall later anyway. The workarounds at the connect site work, or if you can wait, then Vista SP1 should fix this issue.
2) Entity Framework error: "Package VC++ Resource Editor Package has failed to load properly" would display whenever I would try to either add a new ADO.NET Entity Data Model via the wizard or whenever I would open and try to edit .edmx files.
I got nowhere searching for this error. This error has some similar issues related to it, but not quite for this problem. I had taken the issue to some email lists and forums with no response, or nothing helpful (but thanks, anyway). Perhaps the VC++ is used in C# and VB.NET Apps for the purpose of editing resource or designer files, which I am going to assume are needed at least on some level with EF tools. However, when I disabled this package, no other resource or designer intensive parts of VS bombed.
