Hi,

Thanks for the post. Some info that might help.

1) Switching the toolbar between "Debug/Local windows debugger" and "Release" enables or disables the debug which is the same as disabling the license.

2) When debug is on the serial monitor expects serial packets to be terminated with a new line char such as \n or Serial.println(). This is why you aren't seeing data in the monitor.

3) 

The compiler cache in the latest releases has been updated to work the same way the new arduino cache works. 

However my understanding is that an error in the esp8266 definitions can cause some issues. You can fix this as follows:-

In text file : C:\Users\[yourname]t

Change all occurrences of this text:-

"{build.path}/arduino.ar" 

To this text:-

"{build.path}/{archive_file}" 

After changing the file, restart the ide or click "tools>visual micro>reload toolchains"

4)

Lastly one other user reported a slow compile cache issue which was due to non ascii chars in the [yourname] part of the path shown above. This is due to be looked into. Therefore if your name contains any punctuation or other non-plain chars please tell me and I will give you a workaround.

Let me know how you get on

Thanks for the info.

1) Yes

if still a problem then please switch off "visual micro>automatic debugging" and then try the serial.

Thanks