dotnet / dotnet/winforms

Visual Studio 2022 WinForms Designer only works when Visual Studio is run as Administrator

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area-VSDesigner
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C#
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Description

When creating a new WinForms C# project in Visual Studio 2022 (latest version, 17.14.7), the form designer fails to load unless Visual Studio is started with administrator privileges. This happens immediately with a newly created project without any user code. After creating the project, Visual Studio must be started once as administrator. Then works the Designer. From then on, the designer will function normally, even without administrator privileges. This has to be repeated with every new project.

**Steps to Reproduce:**
- Open Visual Studio 2022 (non-admin)
- Create a new WinForms c# App (.NET 8)
- Try to open Form1.cs in Designer
- Error occurs: Designer fails to load with no errors in Error List.

**Workaround:**
- Running Visual Studio as Administrator
- Open the WinForms project
- Open Form1.cs in Designer. This works now.
- Close Visual Studio
- Open Visual Studio without Administrator privileges.
- From now, the Designer works.

Only this steps allows the Forms Designer to work.

**Expected Behavior:**
WinForms Designer should work without requiring elevated privileges.

**Environment:**
- Visual Studio 2022 v17.14.7
- .NET 8.0
- Windows 11 Pro

Thank you for your support.

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