12 Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently asked questions about Microchip Studio.

I experience issues after upgrading from an older version of Microchip Studio or Atmel Studio 7 to Microchip Studio?

Try the following:

1. Right click on Microchip Studio and select 'Run as administrator', which will enable Microchip Studio to unpack any missing components if this failed during installation. Then close Microchip Studio and start it with standard access rights.

2. Delete cached Studio data from older versions by deleting the folders: %localappdata%\Atmel\AtmelStudio\7.0

%appdata%\Atmel\AtmelStudio\7.0

This will delete cached configurations like windows layout that may be inconsistent with the upgraded version.

3. Reinstall Microchip Studio:

  1. Run command promt as administrator.
  2. Go To Studio install directory, e.g., C:\Program Files (x86)\Atmel\Studio\7.0.
  3. >StudioInstallAgent.exe /uninstall.
  4. >StudioInstallAgent.exe /install.
What is the Atmel USB Driver?
The Atmel USB Driver is a cumulative installer that bundles the required USB drivers for all tools.
Will Microchip Studio work in parallel with older versions of Atmel Studio, AVR Studio, and AVR32 Studio?

Microchip Studio will upgrade Atmel Studio 7, so it will not work side-by-side with Atmel Studio 7.

Microchip Studio will work side-by-side with Atmel Studio 6.2 and older versions.
Microchip Studio cannot find any debuggers or programmers when Norton AntiVirus is running.
Microchip Studio might not show any connected tools if Norton AntiVirus is running. To make it work, make sure Norton AntiVirus allows atprogram.exe to communicate with Microchip Studio by adding atbackend.exe as an exception in the Norton AntiVirus allowed programs. It is the same with any anti-virus program that, by default, blocks ports.
Windows shows a message box with the following message when attempting to run Microchip Studio installer: 'Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item.
This might be caused by an antivirus program blocking the installation of the Microchip Studio. Temporarily disable the antivirus program running on the machine and restart the installation.
Microchip Studio takes a very long time to start but runs well in a VM environment.
The Visual Studio Shell (and thus Microchip Studio) does a considerable amount of processing during start-up. Parts of the operations are WPF operations, which greatly benefit from updated graphics libraries and drivers. Installing the latest graphics driver may give a performance boost both during ordinary operation and during start-up.
Verification and programming often fail with a serial port buffer overrun error message when using STK500.
This is a known issue. Due to DPC latency, serial communication can have buffer overruns on the UART chipset. A workaround, which works for most systems, is to use a USB to serial adapter.
When launching from a guest account, the following error is displayed when starting Microchip Studio: 'Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation'.
Microchip Studio neither installs nor runs under a guest account.
Can install and run Microchip Studio from within a Virtual Machine?
Yes, with the simulator, there should be no issues. However, with physical devices like debuggers and programmers, the VM must offer support for physical USB and Serial port connections.
How can I reduce the start-up time of Microchip Studio?
  • Make sure you have uninstalled unwanted extensions
  • Disable Allow Add-in components to load:
    1. Go to Tools, Options, Add-in/Macro Security.
    2. Then, uncheck the Allow Add-in components to load option.
  • Disable the start-up page:
    1. Go to Tools, Options, Environment, Startup, At Startup.
    2. Select the Show empty environment option.
How to improve studio performance for any supported version of Windows?
  • Make sure your system has the latest version of the Windows Automation API
  • Exclude the following directories and files from your antivirus scanner:
    • The Microchip Studio installation directory and all files and folders inside it
    • %AppData%\Roaming\Atmel directory and all files and folders inside it
    • %AppData%\Local\Atmel directory and all files and folders inside it
    • Your project directories
  • Visual Studio Shell requires a lot of swap space. Increase the paging file. Also, put the system to maximize performance. Both options are found in the System, Properties, Performance, Settings menu.
Should I install the latest Windows Automation API 3.0?
Yes, if your OS is any of the following:
  • Windows Server 2008
My Project is large and it takes a long time to open. Is there any option to avoid this delay?
Visual Assist X parses all the files when we open the existing project. You could disable this option:
  1. Go to VAssistX, Visual Assist X Options, Performance.
  2. Uncheck the Parse all files when opening the project.
I have a limited RAM size in my system and I work long hours in the same instance of Microchip Studio. After some time, Microchip Studio becomes slow on my system.
Press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+F12 twice to force Microchip Studio to garbage collect.
How can I make my projects build faster?
You can enable the parallel build Option from Tools, Options, Builder, GNU Make, Make Parallel Execution Of Build. This option will enable the parallel execution feature in the GNU make utility. This option may cause the build log to be displayed unordered.