toolbox problem

[phinds]

When I select a standard windows form at design time, then in the toolbox, under the "general" section, there are ellipse, line, and rectangle, but they are all gray and so can't be used and I can't find any way to make them not gray and thus usable. What am I missing? The help system tells how to USE them but nothing about how to make them accessible, it just assumes they are.

I have no problem drawing a line on a form at run-time but I want to drop one on at design time and can't find any way ... that's my real problem.

I'm not a heavy user of VB.NET so I figure there's probably something simple that I'm overlooking.

Thanks,

Paul

[dglienna]

Which version of VS?

[phinds]

Sorry, didn't think it would matter for something this basic. It's

vs2008, 3.5SP1 Version 9.0.21022.8 RTM

[dglienna]

The command "devenv /resetsettings" will restore Visual Studio back to its original factory state.

http://www.platinumbay.com/blogs/dot...vironment.aspx

[phinds]

OK, thanks for that, but I'm a little confused still. I have not knowingly done anything that would cause the IDE to NOT be in its original state. I certainly have not turned off any configuration that would limit my options in this way, so are you saying that Visual Studio has probably become corrupted somehow? Is that a common occurrence?

LATER:

I see now that numerous of the expandable sub-headers in the toolbox are ALSO filled with gray icons.

For example, the "dialogs" section is black but the "dialog editor" is gray. "Common Controls" is full of black but "Common" is full of gray.

When I have NO form open, ALL of the sub-headers are full of gray, but when I open a standard windows form, SOME of them turn black. It seems to me that there must be some configuration setting that is associated with the form type, or something, and that it is set differently than what I want. That's just a guess, though, based mostly on ignorance of the underlying workings of the IDE.


Thanks,

Paul

[dglienna]

Did you select Windows Form, or Web?

[phinds]

Sorry, by "standard" windows form, I meant to imply the "normal"/"standard" windows form.

The form property says it is a systems.windows.form.form

[phinds]

OK, I guess I've found the problem. These controls are WPF controls and apparently there are no windows form control equivalents and you can't use WPF controls on a windows form. Nuts.