Sanitizing the Toolbox
I created an issue with the Visual Studio 2008 toolbox. I was doing and installation and removal tests which ended up pooching the toolbox. I got a message from VS that effectively said, “Hey, your tool just pooched the toolbox – I’m going to do you a favor and disable your tools so they won’t crash VS.” I accepted this and no matter what I tried within the GUI after cleanly uninstalling and reinstalling my tools, I couldn’t get the tools back. Reset toolbox didn’t work.
To fix the problem I went to the folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_NAME_HERE\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0
and deleted all files ending with .tbd (tool box data, I assume). Use the 8.0 directory for VS 2005.
The first time I touched the tool box Visual Studio took its own sweet time, but it repaired itself.