Hello,

i have a problem with the vMicro Explorer...

When i open the explorer there is nothing but a blank white screen in the middle. If I choose some other IDE then the Arduino 1.6/1.8 i see the expected window (where it says that the IDE location is invalid / IDE is not installed).
This suddenly happened after i modified the platform.txt file from the Arduino IDE to change the compiler optimization.
I already tried the following things: restart the computer / reinstall the Arduino IDE / reinstall Visual Micro, but nothing did help.

I am currently using the Arduino IDE 1.8.9 and Visual Studio 2017.

I did append a few screenshots.

I hope someone can help me.

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Hi

What is the location of your arduino ide?

What is the location of the platform.txt you changed?

Please show screen image of the IDE Locations window when "No IDE" is selected.

Please show screen image of the IDE Locations window when "Arduino 1.6.1,8" is selected.

Hi,
I have also just noticed the same with my installation. I have not used the explore function for a couple of weeks. In that time, visual-studio has installed updates. Its currently 16.2.3
Windows 10 has also updated in that time. dot-net and a feature upgrade.
I have not edited any platform.txt files.
This has happened in both my systems, both of which have had the same updates.

When I go to the visual-micro explorer, its just an empty window. Two actually, one inside the other.

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Hello again,

Today I can't send any screenshots but i will try to answer your questions.

I've installed the Arduino IDE to somw non standard path on my external hard disk. (Visual Studio is also installed somwhere on this hard disk)

The Location settings look similiar to the settings of Stewie. With one difference: I didn't set any optional sketchbook path.

I just remembered that the blank screen appeared after I manually created the folder “portable“ in the Arduino path. I did this because I wnated to install the Due Board on my hard disk and not to the standard path (“.../LocalAppdata/Arduino15...“). Then i installed the DUE Board and changed the platform.txt in the sam folder. And after that all I noticed the white screen.

Unfortunately I repeated the same procedure after I reinstalled the Arduino IDE and I didn't try if the error also occurs without the portable folder.
I will try this tomorrow...

Found my issue!
It was the item mentioned on the visual-micro home page:

VS 2019!! Tool windows (serial, explorer) might not render correctly in VS2019. We are redeveloping our tool windows, in the meantime please Switch off "Tools>Options>Environment>General>Optimize rendering for screens with different pixel densities" if you have issues

Strange how it just suddenly became a problem, on both my systems!

Glad you solved your problem.

I've already read about that problem but i don't use VS 2019 and I think in VS 2017 this option doesn't exist.

In your original report you said you were using vs2017 but the blank screen happens on in vs2019 and often after a windows or vs update.

You report also showed issues accessing any boards but I suspect that none are installed via board manager therefore you needed the AVR that is included with the Arduino IDE.

Because you selected the "No IDE" option that would account for seeing no boards. Maybe this was also confused by the creation of an empty portable folder. Normally for the portable folder you would copy your existing appdata\local\arduino15 into it so that you preserve your board manager and arduino ide config.

I solved it...   :)

But first I will reply to your suggestion:
I'm using vs2017 and did only update the vsMicro Plugin.

All standard avr boards and the Due were installed and it did work with the Arduino IDE and I could compile the code for every board.

I expectecd that I wont see any boards with the "No Ide", but I posted it to clearify that the white window appears only when "Arduino 1.6/1.8" is selected.

How i solved it:
1. I deleted the "portable folder" -> It was't white anymore
2. I recreated the folder
3. I installed the Arduino Due Board with the Visual Micro Board Manager
4. I moved the content of ...\local\appdata\Arduino15 to the portable folder
5. Everything works as intendet  ;D

Great, yes the explorer tree view was empty in vs2017 for no IDE because you had an empty portable folder.with no boards installed. The tool bar of the explorer was showing correctly.

In vs2019 the entire explorer window is blank or transparent, also the serial window, unless "optimize rendering for different pixel densities" is switched OFF

I think you misunderstood something or I didn't  explain it correctly or I misunderstood you. :-/

The white screen was when the correct Arduino IDE was selected.
And some Boards (standard avr Arduino boards) were installed in “ArduinoPath/hardware/avr...“.
The empty portable folder was no problem.
The Problem occured when I installed the Due to the portable folder via the Arduino IDE 1.8.9.

But nonetheless,
thank you for your help.

Your initial screen shot shows the explorer open on the No IDE folder. This does not work with the "portable" folder because that relies on an IDE :)

The explorer has a drop down list, if that had been set to Arduino 1.6/1.8 I think you would have been okay.

I think you have to buy glasses   ;D

In the screenshot “expected.png“ I selected the No IDE Option to show/proove that the white window appears ONLY with an valid IDE selected.
The second screenshot shoes the white window when the correct IDE is selected (Arduino 1.6/1.8).

I see thanks. So had you got an empty portable folder at the time? It's possible the arduino preference.txt was not in the portable folder and that you have subsequently copied it from the appdata\local\arduino15?

We will need to do some tests to understand the difference between your problem config and the config you have now.

I will send you some more detailed informations via PM...

Got it thanks