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Locking files when building in Visual Studio 2010

Hello there, Stackoverflow.
Recently, when I've been programming in Visual Studio 2010, I've been getting the problem with VS locking the bin/Debug/(ProjectName).exe file when trying to build and gives me the error below after trying to build the project 10 times:
Unable to copy file "obj\x86\Debug\TileEngine.exe" to "bin\x86\Debug\TileEngine.exe". The process cannot access the file 'bin\x86\Debug\TileEngine.exe' becuase it is being used by another process.
The problem appears when I edit the source and then try to Debug.
I've checked using different programs, and the only program using the file is Visual Studio.
If I wait for about 10 minutes before trying to build, it seems to work properly, but when trying different things, it isn't good needing to wait 10 minutes before trying something.
I've tried different solutions both on this site as well as everywhere I can find on Google.
Some solutions I've found, but haven't worked for me
Solution 1 - Using a pre-build script
In some different questions here on Stackoverflow, I've found one solution being that you go into Project Properties > Build Events and then in the Pre-build event command line add:
if exist "$(TargetPath).locked" del "$(TargetPath).locked"
if not exist "$(TargetPath).locked" move "$(TargetPath)" "$(TargetPath).locked"
This made it possible for me to build the project one more time than I usually could, but when editing the code again, and then building, the same error appeared.
Note: Trying to build a release instead of a debug build seems to break the pre-build script and it exits with the code '1', which seems to make VS unable to build properly. Removing the pre-build script makes it work like "normal" again, still with the same error though.
Solution 2 - Running Visual Studio as Administrator
This is another solution I've found, but havent worked either for me, so I assume that Visual Studio already have all the permissions required and running as Administrator doesn't actually make any difference.
Solution 3 - Changing the AssemblyVersion
In this question, Visual Studio build fails: unable to copy exe-file from obj\debug to bin\debug, I found another solution that included changing the AssemblyVersion, in the Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs file, to "2.0.0.0".
This, however, haven't made any difference whatsoever for me.
Solution 4 - Closing UserControl designers before building
According to some different answers here and there on the Internet, Visual Studio apparently uses the built project executable to render the UserControl designer(?). In my case, this is probably not it, though, since I use XNA mostly and it doesn't use the UserControl designer.
Solution 5 - Cleaning up resources when application quits
This might be a solution that I have failed to implement properly. I'm just thinking though, that if this is the solution, how come I haven't been required to do it before. I assume XNA unloads everything that gets loaded through the Content pipeline, therefore this solution wouldn't' make any real sense.
If there is anyone that is able to spread some light on this issue, it would be really awesome, as it is stopping me from programming anything really, because I don't like waiting for 10 minutes because I've made a 2 second change all the time.

I've run into this problem a few times myself.
Mine might not be from the same cause as yours, but I'll tell you what went wrong with me and how I fixed it, hopefully it'll be helpful to you.
Basically, my program never fully exited properly, even when it appeared to. It would continue to run, and thus continue to lock down the file.
A quick dirty fix I used initially (and a way to prove if this is the case) is:
Open Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del)
Click Processes tab
Look for your program's name (TileEngine.exe)
Note: There will probably be name_vshost.exe (TileEngine_vshost.exe) That's a VisualStudio thing, ignore that, it's not relevant.
If you find it, it means your program hasn't actual exited fully.
If it's there, click on it and press "End Process"
So if it's there, then for some reason, your program didn't shut down, like mine did.
Often, this is from a thread being launched and forgotten, or an Async task that never completes, or something like that.
Make sure in your OnExiting(..) void function that you kill all running threads.
If your program is still running despite best attempts to close all threads and other blockers, you can use the very dirty bad method:
In OnExiting(...) run the code "System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess().Kill();" - this will taskmanager-style forceshutdown the current process... this is only as an emergency I-can't-make-it-work-any-other-way method.

I think I found the solution myself.
In the Project Properties, "Enable the Visual Studio hosting process" wasn't checked. Checking it seems to have fixed the problems, at least for now.
Got reminded of it from mcmonkey4eva's post. So thanks for that =)
And thanks for the other replied I've got. Stackoverflow is awesome!

Have you checked if any files are being blocked by your firewall? When I switched to the full version of Avast I find I have to disable the File System Shield It loves to remove my executable files when I try to run my visual studio projects.
I had problems when upgrading to VS2012 Professional. (SDK, .Net, Visual C++ Redistributable package)
ENSURE ALL OF THESE ARE COMPATIBLE WITH THE CURRENT VERSION OF VS YOU ARE USING
What I did, was I ended up uninstalling EVERYTHING that was associated with both Visual Studio downloads. If you are able to remove and save your project files elsewhere and then bring them back. Go through all your program files to see if there is anything hidden in the wrong folder and check your C drive.
Which meant downloading and reinstalling (fresh):
I think if you clean out your program files, it should be ok. I wouldn't recommend going into your register unless you are very sure of what you are doing. IF you have already made changes to the register then we'll have a look at that and other options (if this doesn't solve your problem).

Try removing the readonly check from your solution by unchecking at the folder level.

I ran into this problem and in my case was due to having bin included in the solution; as soon as I excluded the bin folder from my solution the problem went away.

Nothing helped, not prebuild commands, neither designers closing, but I figured out a way that helped me, just changing from debug to release and vice-versa releases locked files and you can delete them without closing the IDE.

I regularly get this problem if I switch from Debug to Release and then immediately F5 to compile. Crazy as it sounds, waiting for, say, one minute after switching between modes will prevent this.
If it's locked, the only solution is to close Visual Studio and re-open.

I solved this problem organizing my resources on solution. I noticed this error when I put some images on my application at the same solution folder.
So,
I'd removed all images and resources from app, save without it.
Moved the images to outside Solution folder.
Open the solution and add this images again, using "Import" button at controls.
If you will try this, remember to do with Application Icon, on Project Settings.
Now, everything is working fine for me.
I hope it helps.

You need to disable Windows Indexer as it locks up the file
Follow this Guide how to disable

In my case the problem seem to be caused by the remote debugger. It starts on local machine when you compile with "x64" option. Try to change the project setting (properties/buid) until you reach the final version.

Change Build Platform target from x86 to Any CPU.

Visual Studio 2012 won't let me debug

I can't seem to be able to debug. When I try to, I don't get any build errors, and the layout changes to debug mode, but the windows never pops up. I have an orange bar at the bottom of VS, which I think is standard, but nothing happens after that. It's not just in the project I'm working on. I have started a new WFA and tried to debug without adding any code and the same thing happens. Anybody have similar issues?

I've encountered this before. Not sure what causes it, but generally it is one of a couple of things to fix it.
make sure you are building in debug and not release
close VS, go to the project's dir and delete the obj and bin directories. Reopen in VS and rebuild.
there is an option under tools - options - build (iirc) that allows for checking if source is same as code file. However, you should see a message in output window if this is the case.
on the project properties in the build (iirc) you can throttle the pdb file from full debug symbols to no pdb at all. If you are not the only person on the project check this setting still has full pdb enabled (low probability this got changed though)
make sure you're on the right platform that you are building to (x64 vs x32)
...lots more, but a starting place...
Addendum as per comment...
So, those messages are good. It is saying there are no problems (but it sounds like you already know that :) ). I would start with the general debug options you mention. Do this on a hello world app. That way you can troubleshoot the lowest common first. Here are my settings. Try to match them and see if that works. For example, I know "ask before deleting breakpoint" is irrelevant, but "break all processes when one process breaks" is important. So, I just added them all to make it easier to troubleshoot.
ALso, make sure you are getting a red dot here like so in your code in visual studio (I've seen instances where VS won't let you put this here):

Right click on the project
Click on the properties.
go to web.
Check the Box for Enable Edit and Continue .
Hope that helps :)

This is an issue with visual studio 2012. It doesn't ALWAYS show up. I've found that if you stop your program during debugging, or if you close the console window, this will almost always trigger.
However, letting it run to completion isn't enough either, sometimes this just happens.
Also you can build your application in debug mode, go to the output, run the program, and attach to that process. :P

Amazing answers already given but they dont help in the purpose. So here is my finding, no matter if i am late in answering, but it really works for me.
Even if you are developing a web app, just go to the website properties by right-clicking the project and then you see a "Web" tab on left as i have highlighted. Then just check the box saying "Enable Edit and Continue". Thats all you need to do. it works for me!

I had a similar problem, and solution was absolutely dumb. VS was confused with two instances of Internet Explorer in “Browse with” setting. So, I set Google Chrome (any browser) as default, and then set IE as default again. It deleted the other instance of IE (only one remained) and debugging was enabled.
Hope it help!

I had a similar issue.
I added up:
using namespace std;
and this solved the problem

For me, uninstalling the Redgate's Reflector plugin that had expired fixed it. I spent more than 4 hours uninstalling, rebooting, reverting to older code, etc etc..

When my default browser was changed to CHROME, I could no longer debug my User Interface. Setting IE back to the default browser fixed it. Alternatively you can attach the process plug-in during debug.

I had the same problem with my desktop application and as this forum says you should mark your project as a startup project, since visual studio has unmarked. It worked just fine for me an I believe it will help other people that may have this problem, since I believe you have finished this project.

One of my VB .NET Winforms projects wouldn't allow debugging.
This was due to the configuration manager set to 'Release' even though the toolbar dropdown indicated 'Debug'.
You need to select the mode dropdown and select the last option 'Configuration Manager' and ensure that the main project is set to 'Debug' and not 'Release'

Install Microsoft SSDTSetup.exe 450Kb and Close the SSDT tool during install. After installation open the SSDT tool and execute the script task and Component with breakpoint. Worked for me

try checking your output without debugging
Ctrl + F5
good luck

Unable to automatically step into the server. The debugger failed to stop in the server process

I receive the following error when attempting to Step Into a process using F11 in Visual Studio 2008 Team System:
"Unable to automatically step into the server. The debugger failed to stop in the server process."
I have searched pretty long and hard on the internet and the most relevant message I found was http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/65004e38%28v=VS.90%29.aspx. Unfortunately, this did not help. All signs are pointing that my ASP.NET setup is incorrect, but it's the IIS environment that ships with VS2008 Team System so I didn't make any figuration changes.
The answer to this question, which sounds like it might have fixed my solution is no longer an active link: Unable to automatically step into the server when debugging WCF. Does anybody know how I can jump into and fix this problem?

This took me 3 days and no less than 5 people looking at the problem to solve; although I'd like to report the exact problem I'm still left to speculate. However, I am no longer getting this error when I do the following:
I opened the .cs file of the base class my service derived from within my Testing solution. I set a break-point in the constructor of this base class. Because the base class wasn't within the solution of either my web service nor my test solution (it was simply referenced), VS2008 was unable to break into this .cs file.
The solution was rather moronic. I opened the base class.cs file within my Testing solution (the file only, not the solution). I set a break-point in the constructor class, and I was then able to step-into all other files from there. Once I was able to successfully set a break-point and stop the debugger in the base class within my actual Test solution, I was able to continue debugging as I would normally expect.
My only conclusion to the root cause of this problem is that VS2008 is retarded. I'm sorry it's not much of an answer, but this is how I was able to resolve the issue which sunk over 30 hours of time.

This could be because the debug not reaching to your break point there may be some error occurring before it.Try add break point in the base class constructor.

I know this is an old question, but I encountered a similar issue and the problem was that I was in Release mode rather than Debug mode. Changing to Debug mode solved the problem. I'm using VS 2010.

this problem can occur if you have another solution opened and running (another instance of visual studio).

I got this error once when I had the wrong project set as the startup project in the solution.

This same thing happened when I had the service open in a browser. I closed it out and it fixed the issue.
Guessing you have it open multiple times. (basically repeating what Avicena00 said)

I got this error when trying to import a file that was too big. I had to increase the maxAllowedContentLength value in my requestLimits area in my web.config to fix it.

As stated this is an old problem, but I ran into it running later versions of Visual Studio, and have not seen the solution that I found listed. This problem in my experience happened when the service was using a lower version of .Net (in my case 3.0 vs 4.5). Changing the .Net version int he project properties to 4.5 (which matched the project referencing the service), solved my problem.

This worked for me: Tool > Options > Debugging > Use Managed Compatibility Mode
Visual Studio 2018 Options

In my case the problem was that I had open the same project and its copy (in different directory) in two Visual Studio instances. Solution than in final was simple as closing all IIS instances of Web projects and closing all instances of Visual studio. After opening just one project at a time debugging started to work like a charm.

I get this error when I debugged one and another solution.
The answer is very simple
Click on the solution->Properties->Multiple startup projects
Then select projects and click f11.

Code changes not being included when compiling in Visual C# Express 2010

At seemingly random times, whenever I load up VC# Express for the day and start working, any changes I make to my code don't get reflected in my debug runs. It's as if VC just refuses to compile the code and just runs the old already-compiled version. Deleting the "bin" folder in the project directory doesn't help, as then VC just complains that it can't find the *.exe instead of recompiling. Doing a rebuild helps, but only for that one rebuild, so I'm continuously having to rebuild the solution to see any changes, which is really slow.
The only way I've found to get rid of this problem (for maybe a week or two) is to create a new project and manually copy over my code. Needless to say, this is really frustrating and tedious. Is this a documented issue? What can be done to fix it? Searching online doesn't really turn up any answers, as the search terms most applicable to the problem bring up a lot of noise results.

You might see if the project you are working on is set to Build when the solution builds. To check this, right-click your Solution and go to Properties. Click the Configuration Properties node on the left and make sure all of the projects you want to build are checked on the ride side for your given build type.
UPDATE: Also, what is the timestamp on your build files? Is the timestamp getting updated on your build?

I had this problem when working on a network drive, and the time on the server was out of sync. Linux+Samba accessed by Win7 Pro and VB 2010 Express.
Correcting the time-difference solved the issue.

click on BUILD-->REBUILD SOLUTION and you are now good to go

Why does Visual Studio sometimes not go to my breakpoints?

I have been using Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 and i have noticed that sometimes when i place break point in my code that it does not want to go to the break point. So i restart my PC and then it works again. Its like something get's stuck? Does this only happen to me???
How can i prevent this! It is driving me nuts!!
Thanks in advance!!

Often this is because the code you are looking hasn't been compiled since you placed the breakpoint, so you test code / unit test, is running against an outdated DLL.
This might be what's happening to you.
Check out your build manager, and make sure all the projects are checked.
Edit:
Go to Build->Configuration Manager and make sure the [Build] checkboxes are all checked, that will ensure that every project is compiled when you build the solution (Ctrl+shift+b).

It depends on if you are developing a web application, or if you have late bound code, changes in controls from another project, etc.... One way to track down problems is to look in the Debug - Windows - Modules pane, and see which assembly is actually being used. If you have remoting boundaries to cross, the breakpoint won't become active until the code is executed. If you hover over the breakpoint when it is not coloured in completely and has that question mark, you can also get more information.
Hope that helps.

I had the same problem with VS 2005.
Apparently Visual Studio's setting were corrupted. I reset them from Tools/Import and Export Settings/Reset all settings. It's now breakpointing fine.
Mike

Instead of rebooting your computer try selecting build -> rebuild solution and then running in debug mode. That usually seems to clear out little annoying things like that.

There's a hotfix for various debugger problems in VS 2008 SP1, have you tried that?