Sometimes, When mouse over the main menu items (File, Edit, View … Window or Help), the IDE hangs. Sometimes, when clicking on the menu item it will highlight or turn completely black.
The same happens when using the keyboard. Alt+F highlights the File menu. Sometimes (after a few seconds) the region that should display the menu will be drawn in a solid color, but the menu is not populated.
On rare occasion (when using the mouse), the menu will populate, but when hovering over a sub-menu item, the item blinks – or is completely erased.
Environment:
I just upgraded from XP to Win7 Enterprise. Installed VS 2010 Premium and SP1.
Attempted Resolution:
devenv.exe /safemode – It happens when VS is running in Safe Mode also.
I have disable Aero – still happens.
Disabled Hardware acceleration via registry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Avalon.Graphics\DisableHWAcceleration
Have uninstalled and reinstalled Visual Studio and the service pack.
Visual Studio worked properly when I booted the machine in safe mode. (So I assumed there were some conflicts with in one of the many drivers I installed.)
While in Windows -Safe Mode-, I went to Tools->Options. On the options window, under Environment: General I changed the 'Visual experience' settings. I unchecked "Automatically adjust visual experience based on client performance", "Enable rich client visual experience" & "Use hardware graphics acceleration if available".
With these settings, the IDE works perfectly!
Problem resolved.
More info at https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/675328/vs2010-ide-hangs-when-menu-items-are-activated
