Service Pack for VS 2005

[rbulph]

I'm running Visual Studio 2005. Does anyone have any views on whether it's worth downloading the service pack available here http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=BB4A75AB-E2D4-4C96-B39D-37BAF6B5B1DC&displaylang=en?

 

I was prompted to look for the service pack because I just reloaded my application only to find that all of the toolbar buttons had disappeared and I now have to reinsert them. I wonder if the 6GB of the service pack will help to avoid this sort of thing in future or if it will simply create more problems. I know this thread relates to a different service pack, but it has got me worried - http://www.xtremedotnettalk.com/showthread.php?t=100811&highlight=service+pack

[PlausiblyDamp]

Personally I found the service pack made VS more stable and slightly more responsive, however given the size (400+ MB) there must be a fair few fixes that are worthwhile applying.

 

Be aware the service pack is so large it can fail to install, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925336 gives the details and the pre-patch patch you need to apply.

[rbulph]

Thanks, have installed it. It took an eternity to install, including 15 minutes while it displayed the message "Time remaining: 0 seconds", but the VS does now seem to be a bit more responsive. I didn't need to install the pre-patch patch.