For some unknown (to me) reason, VS 2012/VisualMicro creates an encrypted autorecover file for arduino projects.  The only reason I discovered this was the prompt to back up the encryption key after creating an arduino project.  The filename is of the format "-AutoRecover.projectname.sln", in the Visual Studio backup files folder, which is not an encrypted folder. Does anyone know why the file is encrypted?  Besides being an odd surprise, this causes issues running some backups.

I did not see any other forum entries describing anything similar.   

Environment: Windows 7 Pro 64bit, VS 2012 Pro, VisualMicro 1.1212.30

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Thanks for the quick reply.

I would have assumed that this was strictly under conrol of VS as well.  But I have never seen anything similar, before using the VisualMicro extension (which I really like). 

After reading your post, I specifically ran through a scenario creating some C++ solutions.  A non-encrypted "autorecover....sln" file was created in each case.  I then created an arduino project and again VS created an encrypted autorecover file.   

So I don't know what is causing this, but it is consistently different.

Thanks.

Tim, 

Here is what I found.  BTW, I set default autorecover time down to 1 minute to expedite the process.

If you create a Win32 Dll, click the "empty project" checkbox. Does this create an encrypted auto recover?

No autorecover files created.

If not then place add a .ino file with the same name as the project. Does this create an encrypted auto recover?

Non-encrypted file ~AutoRecover.Win32test2.vcxproj created when I added source ino file (no .sln recovery file yet).  So I added a blank data file to the solution to force a .sln recovery file. Non-encrypted ~AutoRecover.Win32test2.sln file added to backup files.

Switch board and save the project. Does this create an encrypted auto recover?

Saving the project removed all recovery files. 

Close vs and re-open the project. Does this create an encrypted auto recover?

No recovery files created. So I again added a file to the solution, which caused a non-encrypted ~AutoRecover.Win32test2.sln file to be created, along with several other non-encrypted recovery files for the individual items. I then added an existing arduino project to the solution. An autorecover file was created for the existing .ino file, but all recovery files remained unencrypted.

Close vs, re-open then "File>New>Arduino Project". Provide a name. Does this create an encrypted auto recover?

Encrypted ~AutoRecover.Ardtest3.sln created. Non-encrypted ~AutoRecover.Ardtest3.vcxproj created.

In summary, a number of machinations of Win32 code produced .sln recovery files, none encrypted.  A creation of an independent arduino project created an encrypted .sln recovery file within a a minute or so.

Hope this helps.  Thanks again.   

Walt

Tim,

Appreciate the attention.  Obviously not the highest priority of a problem, but an oddity/annoyance nonetheless.

Thanks,

Walt

Tim,

The "awareness" of this occured when I saw the "backup your encryption key" prompt which Windows produces the first time a file is encrypted for a given userid. The "problem" aspect of this occured while I was attempting to run a manual backup, which choked when it ran across the encrypted file (since I was running from a different user ID).  I have had similar problems in the past with other standard backup programs, which run automated backups under other system ID's.   This is what led me to investigate in the first place.

Added clarification:  As far as I can tell, this issue has caused no problems actually using VS 2012. I have had one VS 2012 "stopped working" occurence while editing an Arduino project.  But I have no additional info on what specifically might have caused that.   

Having said that, the issue is at this point really little more than an annoyance, which can be worked around.  In the short term, therefore, I'm not sure how much effort you need to put in here.  But in the long term, it possibly points to some type of underlying issue either with either VisulaMicro or MS VS which is not clearly understood. So I leave it to you to prioritize as you see fit.

For those of us who have gotten into Arduino programming (and already somewhat familiar with the MS VS environment), the VisualMicro product is great. Anything you can do to make the product even better is appreciated. 

Hope that helps. 

Thanks again, Walt

Your not alone WaltG.

I also came across the prompt to "export" my encryption keys. But I honestly thought at the time it was VS wanting attention since I had just done a clean re-install and update to the program before running the Visual Micro plug-ins.

I'm using VS 2010 Pro if it makes any difference.