Compatibility of Visual Studio Integrated Designers

In This Topic

ActiveReports 18 can be installed and used on the same machine in which other older versions of ActiveReports for .NET (except ActiveReports 13) have been installed.

Compatibility of ActiveReports Visual Studio Integrated Designers with Visual Studio

ActiveReports Visual Studio integrated designer of different versions can be used by integrating the designer with Visual Studio IDE (Integrated development environment). The following table shows the Visual Studio versions corresponding to the integrated designer versions that are supported.

	VS .NET 2002	VS .NET 2003	VS 2005	VS 2008	VS 2010	VS 2012	VS 2013	VS 2015	VS 2017	VS 2019	VS 2022
ActiveReports 1	○	○	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×
ActiveReports 2	×	○	○	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×
ActiveReports 3	×	○	○	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×
ActiveReports 6	×	×	○	○	○	×	×	×	×	×	×
ActiveReports 7	×	×	×	○	○	○	○	×	×	×	×
ActiveReports 8	×	×	×	○	○	○	○	×	×	×	×
ActiveReports 9	×	×	×	×	○	○	○	○	×	×	×
ActiveReports 10	×	×	×	×	○	○	○	○	×	×	×
ActiveReports 11	×	×	×	×	○	○	○	○	○	×	×
ActiveReports 12	×	×	×	×	×	○	○	○	○ (VS SP2+)	×	×
ActiveReports 13	×	×	×	×	×	○	○	○	○ (VS SP2+)	○	×
ActiveReports 14	×	×	×	×	×	×	○	○	○ (VS SP2+)	○	×
ActiveReports 15	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	○	○ (VS SP2+)	○	×
ActiveReports 16	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	○ (VS SP2+)	○	○
ActiveReports 17	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	○ (VS SP2+)	○	○
ActiveReports 18	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	○ (VS SP2+)	○	○

To switch the designers of versions prior to ActiveReports 13, use the switcher tool. See ActiveReports 13 help file for more information.

Starting from ActiveReports 14, you should use the Visual Studio menu to enable/disable the ActiveReports integration.

Manage Visual Studio Integration

In case you want to disable or uninstall ActiveReports 18 Visual Studio integration, do the following.

In Visual Studio, go to Tools > Extensions and Updates... or Extensions > Manage Extensions.
Navigate to ActiveReports 18 VS2022 and click Disable or Uninstall.

Extensions and Update window

In case you want to install the integration again, follow these steps.

Go to the installation folder - C:\Program Files\MESCIUS\ActiveReports 18\VisualStudio (C:\Program Files (x86)\MESCIUS\ActiveReports 18\VisualStudio on a 64-bit Windows operating system).
Run the VSIX as per your Visual Studio Version.

Note:

It is not possible to install ActiveReports 18 and ActiveReports 13 side-by-side.
It is not possible to use different versions of ActiveReports for .NET within a single Visual Studio project.
If you are creating an ActiveReports 17 application in Visual Studio 2017 or Visual Studio 2019 or Visual Studio 2022, and you also have ActiveReports 13 installed in the supported Visual Studio version, then you may get a few errors in the property grid such as 'Object does not match target type' or 'Object reference not set to an instance of Object'. This issue is related to Visual Studio; you just need to restart Visual Studio to resolve the issue. Before restart, save the project, if necessary.
When using our Integrated Designer in Visual Studio 2022, you may observe invisible controls in our smart panels or tool windows (such as Report Explorer or Layers List). To solve this issue, navigate to Tools > Options > Environment > General and clear the 'Optimize rendering for screens with different pixel densities' checkbox.