TechNote (Archived)

Using MS Visual Source Safe with HomeSite

Issue

Attempting to add a Homesite Project to source control when using Microsoft Visual SourceSafe produces the following error: 'No source control providers could be located' and then 'Unable to locate default source control provider. If you do have a source control provider, you may need to reintall it'

A source control provider is required to register itself in order to be recognized by clients that use the common source code control API. Vendors choose to do this in a variety of ways (e.g., Versions has an option during setup, PVCS has a seperate install, etc.). Some customers found that Microsoft Visual SourceSafe was not properly registered and therefore produced the above error in HomeSite.

Solution

To resolve the problem, first try running the network client install, NETSETUP.EXE. This should register the software, but in the event you need to manually configure it you can do so with the registry editor by adding the following string values:

 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE    \SOFTWARE       \SourceCodeControlProvider          \ProviderRegKey =              "Software\Microsoft\SourceSafe"  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE     \SOFTWARE       \SourceCodeControlProvider          \InstalledSCCProviders             \Microsoft Visual SourceSafe=               "Software\Microsoft\SourceSafe"   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE    \SOFTWARE       \Microsoft          \SourceSafe             \SCCServerName =                "Microsoft Visual SourceSafe"  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE    \SOFTWARE       \Microsoft          \SourceSafe             \SCCServerPath =                 "C:\dev\ss\win32\ssscc.dll"

NOTE: the SCCServerPath entry must have a filepath to ssscc.dll on your system. You'll probably have a value different than what is listed here.