Visual Studio Build Very Slow

Question

This applies to both 2008 and 2010 versions (and probably earlier ones too). Also to both C++ and C# projects.

An initial build (after reboot) runs at normal speed

Answer 1

Try to use ProcessMonitor (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645) to find what the Visual Studio doing during build process. Add the Filter "ProcessName is devenv.exe then Include" and make some research. It was useful for me.

I have a similar problem - very slow build and debug process - and I can solve it with Process Monitor. I run Process Monitor and saw that Visual Studio process read and write some HTL files many times. It was the Assembly Binding Log (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/e74a18c4(v=vs.100).aspx) - the utility that store information about libraries binding. Once I enabled this log, and this utility create about 8 Gb HTM logs on my hard drive ) It was very slow. Then i disable logging, the building time of my project decreases from 10 minutes to 10 seconds!