VS hangs on build (caused by Web Essentials)

[barobba]

I am using VS 2013 and Web Essentials.

Whenever I build a large project like an Umbraco site (not the initial Umbraco installation, but after I have built a large enough site; e.g. lots of SASS and JavaScript), the Web Essentials hangs Visual Studio.

This problem also occurs when opening the same type of solution.

Problem areas:

• When opening the solution
• Just after building

It would be great if there was some way to see what Web Essentials was doing, why it was hanging. Then at least I would know what to configure or turn off.

Instead, I am resorting to Disabling Web Essentials until I use it during the stages of development where I use it the most (for me that is during SASS styling).

[Drakiri]

You could try turning off 'Compile files on Build' for SASS, and see if it works then? We have a similarly large project, but as long as the SASS isn't built during a build it seems fine.

[barobba]

That is turned off.

[barobba]

I updated the issue, because this is also occurring when the solution is opened.

[Drakiri]

When it hangs, do you see a large amount node.exe appearing in task manager?

[barobba]

Only one node.exe with a few threads; I think 9. But, I do see that Visual Studio is paging like crazy. I am low on disk, I am going to try to expand that (on Parallels), and see if that helps. Maybe there is some type of thrashing going on.

[barobba]

I think the enormous amount of I/O reads that Visual Studio is doing, is because Web Essentials is scanning for all the files in the project or solution. I wonder if it is also opening some of the files? In any case, I tried adding a .weignore, but not sure if it is helping unless I can get some sort of log of what Web Essentials is doing (or where it is scanning).