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After upgrading from .NET 4.5 to 4.6.2 Designer stopped working why?

Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2019 Version 16.11.8 (up to date at the very moment of this post)

It's a CLR Project originally created with .NET 4.5 Framework. I had to upgrade it to 4.6.2 however I figured out a possible bug. If you have a System::Windows::Forms::Timer or a System::ComponentModel::IContainer added in the System::Windows::Forms::Form so the Designer will stop working after the upgrade.

This is a dummy project generated by Visual Studio that shows what it needs to reproduce the bug.

#pragma once

namespace Net45Test {

    using namespace System;
    using namespace System::ComponentModel;
    using namespace System::Collections;
    using namespace System::Windows::Forms;
    using namespace System::Data;
    using namespace System::Drawing;

    /// <summary>
    /// Summary for MyForm
    /// </summary>
    public ref class MyForm : public System::Windows::Forms::Form
    {
    public:
        MyForm(void)
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            //
            //TODO: Add the constructor code here
            //
        }

    protected:
        /// <summary>
        /// Clean up any resources being used.
        /// </summary>
        ~MyForm()
        {
            if (components)
            {
                delete components;
            }
        }
    private: System::Windows::Forms::Timer^ timer1;
    protected:
    private: System::ComponentModel::IContainer^ components;

    private:
        /// <summary>
        /// Required designer variable.
        /// </summary>


#pragma region Windows Form Designer generated code
        /// <summary>
        /// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
        /// the contents of this method with the code editor.
        /// </summary>
        void InitializeComponent(void)
        {
            this->components = (gcnew System::ComponentModel::Container());
            this->timer1 = (gcnew System::Windows::Forms::Timer(this->components));
            this->SuspendLayout();
            // 
            // MyForm
            // 
            this->AutoScaleDimensions = System::Drawing::SizeF(6, 13);
            this->AutoScaleMode = System::Windows::Forms::AutoScaleMode::Font;
            this->ClientSize = System::Drawing::Size(284, 261);
            this->Name = L"MyForm";
            this->Text = L"MyForm";
            this->ResumeLayout(false);

        }
#pragma endregion
    };
}

Designer error:

C++ CodeDOM parser error: Line: 54, Column: 21 --- Unknown type ''. Please make sure that the assembly that contains this type is referenced. If this type is a part of your development project, make sure that the project has been successfully built.
at Microsoft.VisualC.CppCodeParser.OnMethodPopulateStatements(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.CodeDom.CodeMemberMethod.get_Statements()
at System.ComponentModel.Design.Serialization.TypeCodeDomSerializer.Deserialize(IDesignerSerializationManager manager, CodeTypeDeclaration declaration)
at System.ComponentModel.Design.Serialization.CodeDomDesignerLoader.PerformLoad(IDesignerSerializationManager manager)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Design.Serialization.CodeDom.VSCodeDomDesignerLoader.PerformLoad(IDesignerSerializationManager serializationManager)
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Design.Serialization.CodeDom.VSCodeDomDesignerLoader.PerformLoad(IDesignerSerializationManager serializationManager)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Design.Serialization.CodeDom.VSCodeDomDesignerLoader.DeferredLoadHandler.Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextManager.Interop.IVsTextBufferDataEvents.OnLoadCompleted(Int32 fReload)

Did I change the Target Framework Version correctly as in the picture below, should I do something else? enter image description here

So assuming I did it right, what is happening here? A Visual Studio bug or something else?

Solution

  • Microsoft didn't fix it yet, fortunately I figured out a way to fix it up, you need to enable the hidden folders on your computer and go to your project directory then delete the .vs hidden folder, so the next time you load your project the Designer should work.