Visual COBOL 3.0 for Visual Studio 2017 on Windows 10 - Where is the icon on the Start menu?

As the subject implies: new Windows 10 PC, installed MS VS 2017, installed VC 3.0 for VS2017. Start menu has MF Visual COBOL section, but when expanded there is no "Visual COBOL for Visual Studio 20xx" entry like we have with VC 2.3.2 for VS2013. All of the other entries are there. Tried running repair, successfully, but no change to the Start menu entries. How do we start VC 3.0 for VS 2017?

There is no Visual COBOL shortcut icon in the Visual COBOL group on the Start menu when using Visual Studio 2017. This is because Visual Studio 2017 supports multiple instances of the product installed that are setup and configured differently. You can have one instance that includes Visual COBOL and another that does not.

When using Visual Studio 2017 you start Visual COBOL by clicking directly on the appropriate shortcut for Visual Studio 2017 itself.

Thanks.

As the subject implies: new Windows 10 PC, installed MS VS 2017, installed VC 3.0 for VS2017. Start menu has MF Visual COBOL section, but when expanded there is no "Visual COBOL for Visual Studio 20xx" entry like we have with VC 2.3.2 for VS2013. All of the other entries are there. Tried running repair, successfully, but no change to the Start menu entries. How do we start VC 3.0 for VS 2017?

And where exactly did this icon get placed by the installer? We can't find it, it's not on the desktop. There is a Visual Studio 2017 entry under the "Most Used" section of the Start menu, but it starts a "vanilla" version without Visual COBOL. The same happens with the Visual Studio 2017 entry under the "Visual Studio" section of the Start menu.

As the subject implies: new Windows 10 PC, installed MS VS 2017, installed VC 3.0 for VS2017. Start menu has MF Visual COBOL section, but when expanded there is no "Visual COBOL for Visual Studio 20xx" entry like we have with VC 2.3.2 for VS2013. All of the other entries are there. Tried running repair, successfully, but no change to the Start menu entries. How do we start VC 3.0 for VS 2017?

Either one of those icons should start the Visual Studio in which Visual COBOL is installed. If you open up the Help-->About Visual Studio does it show Visual COBOL as an add-on?

Do you perhaps have another version of Visual Studio or Visual COBOL installed on this system?

There is a command called MFVSIXInstall that you can run from the command line that will install VC into VS if something goes wrong.

Please see the docs here.

As the subject implies: new Windows 10 PC, installed MS VS 2017, installed VC 3.0 for VS2017. Start menu has MF Visual COBOL section, but when expanded there is no "Visual COBOL for Visual Studio 20xx" entry like we have with VC 2.3.2 for VS2013. All of the other entries are there. Tried running repair, successfully, but no change to the Start menu entries. How do we start VC 3.0 for VS 2017?

After starting VS 2017 from either icon, Help->About doesn't show VC as an add-on.

We uninstalled and re-installed VC, no change.

We ran MFVSIXInstall and got a VSIX Installer message "The selected extensions are already installed to the specified SKU." No change.

Let's cut to the chase: What is the Target string on the Properties sheet of a shortcut/icon that starts VS 2017 with VC 3.0?

As the subject implies: new Windows 10 PC, installed MS VS 2017, installed VC 3.0 for VS2017. Start menu has MF Visual COBOL section, but when expanded there is no "Visual COBOL for Visual Studio 20xx" entry like we have with VC 2.3.2 for VS2013. All of the other entries are there. Tried running repair, successfully, but no change to the Start menu entries. How do we start VC 3.0 for VS 2017?

There is no special shortcut to start a VS2017 with VC installed in it as VC is simply installed as an extension into Visual Studio.

Can you please attach the installation log for this which can be found in the %TEMP% folder?
What edition of Visual Studio 2017 is this, Community, Professional, etc.?

Don, I know that you normally use a very locked down secure system and we have had problems with this before. Is this still the case here?

As the subject implies: new Windows 10 PC, installed MS VS 2017, installed VC 3.0 for VS2017. Start menu has MF Visual COBOL section, but when expanded there is no "Visual COBOL for Visual Studio 20xx" entry like we have with VC 2.3.2 for VS2013. All of the other entries are there. Tried running repair, successfully, but no change to the Start menu entries. How do we start VC 3.0 for VS 2017?

A couple of suggestions from Development:

If from within Visual Studio 2017 IDE you open File -> New Project does it show any of the COBOL templates?
Also check Tools -> Extensions and Updates. Does Visual COBOL appear there?

Possibly all the uninstall/repair steps have got VS into a mess. You could try uninstalling the VSIX extensions using MFVSIXInstall -u. Assuming success, you could then re-run MFVSIXInstall and it should show it installing to the appropriate VS 2017 instance.

As the subject implies: new Windows 10 PC, installed MS VS 2017, installed VC 3.0 for VS2017. Start menu has MF Visual COBOL section, but when expanded there is no "Visual COBOL for Visual Studio 20xx" entry like we have with VC 2.3.2 for VS2013. All of the other entries are there. Tried running repair, successfully, but no change to the Start menu entries. How do we start VC 3.0 for VS 2017?

OK, as you were. We are good now (so far). What we had was a failure to communicate/comprehend on our part. Here is what (we think) happened:

First, yes, we are still ridiculously restricted. For whatever reason, the first install of VC 3.0 for VS 2017 didn't appear to work as there wasn't an MF Documents entry in the Help, and we couldn't find a VC-flavored icon/shortcut. We didn't think about File>New Project or Tools>Extensions and updates.

We had already started a VC uninstall-reinstall cycle when we received your "MFVSIXInstall" e-mail. When the reinstall finished we only looked for a VC-flavored icon/shortcut. We didn't understand your statement in your first response, "When using Visual Studio 2017 you start Visual COBOL by clicking directly on the appropriate shortcut for Visual Studio 2017 itself." We interpreted the word "appropriate" as meaning there is a VC-flavored icon/shortcut somewhere. Not finding one, we ran MFVSIXInstall as you instructed in your second response. Being oblivious and still not finding the expected icon/shortcut, I came back to you.

After receiving your last e-mail we realized what you had been saying all along about the icon/shortcut (just hit us with a 2x4, it's faster) and we are seeing COBOL everywhere you said to look, including MF Documents in Help. The message we got from MFVSIXInstall seems to indicate that the second install worked, but we were fixated on finding a non-existent icon/shortcut.

Thank you and the MF Development staff for your time and patience.

Onward and upward ...