From my limited understanding, the SetupVSPackage needs to be built for each new Visual Studio release and since VS 2017 just released this month, it may be a little while before that happens on the supported branches.

Since SQL Anywhere 12 went past development support last December, if you absolutely must need to use Visual Studion 2017 for project work you will need to go to SQL Anywhere versions 16 or 17 when that support becomes available for those releases.

[Caveat this thread only applies to support for EF6 on VS2017 and should not be read as implying an announcement of or suggesting support for the newer EF-Core which remains to be undetermined at this time.]

• Prepare the comparison files "12.0.without.reg" and "12.0.wth.reg" (12.0 is for Visual Studio 2013, correct for your version of VS).

  1. Prepare a snapshot of the registry without an installed SA provider.

     Cd C:\Program Files\SQL Anywhere 17\Assembly\V4

     SetupVSPackage.exe /u

     Export the HKEY LOCAL MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\12.0 branch to the file "12.0.without.reg"

  2. Preparing the snapshot of the registry after connecting the SA provider.

     SetupVSPackage.exe / i / v EF6

     Export the HKEY LOCAL MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\12.0 branch to the file "12.0.with.reg"

  3. Run WinDiff.exe(or another file comparison utility) and compare files.

     Save the difference to any file ("2017.05.16.reg", for instance).

  4. Change the prefix HKEY LOCAL MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\12.0 to

     HKEY USERS\VS2017PrivateRegistry\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\15.0 e014b343 Config inside this file.

• Connect a hive.

  1. Select the HKEY_USERS node in Regedit.

  2. Connect hive from C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\15.0_e014b343\privateregistry.bin. (value of literal "e014b343" may be different)

  3. Assign an name to hive (VS2017PrivateRegistry, for instance).

• Add "2017.05.15.reg" to the registry (just click on the file).

• Unload the VS2017PrivateRegistry hive.