SQL Server CE Toolbox - VS 2010 plugin not allowing connections to 4.0

Question

I've installed the SQL Server Compact Edition 4.0 runtime and DbFactory provider and everything.

But after I've installed the SQL Server CE Toolbox (v3.2) from CodePlex, I still cannot seem to get any connections established.

The info dialog seems to indicate everything's fine and dandy....

but when I tried to open a new connection to an existing .sdf database file, I cannot seem to do that from within Visual Studio 2010 (SP1):

The SQL Server CE Toolbox stand-alone app works just fine on that very machine - just the VS plugin doesn't seem to be functioning. Any ideas?

Answer 1

The Toolbox add-in needs the 3.5 DbProvider for storing custom connections and other functionality (This is for historical reasons, the assunption being that 3.5 SP2 is installed and registered with VS 2010 RTM). And the 3.5 DbProvider is not properly installed on your system (as the about dialog shows). So repair/re-install the 3.5 SP2 Desktop runtime - and remember to install both the x86 and x64 MSI files.

Answer 2

I installed via NuGet "Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition" and SQL CE Toolbox had the same problem.

I corrected the problem by downloading directly from Microsoft SQL CE (NOT via Nuget)

Microsoft SQL Server Compact 4.0 from Microsoft here
or Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5 Service Pack 2 for Windows Desktop here