Visual Studio 2013 Community Problems - windows

Im tearing my hair out with this one Im afraid and am down hours and hours.
Firstly I wanted to install VS Community to use with Unity. Im running windows 8.1 pro.
But I had trouble installing. Long story short there were some fonts in windows\fonts that the VS installer didnt like. So I moved the fonts and the installer ran through successfully. I then installed the VS 2013 Tools for Unity.
So then I imported the Unity VS tools to my project. Now my unity project hangs when unity opens. I fixed unity by removing the Unity VS stuff form the project directory.
I started getting errors on screen that said "An unhandled exception System.Configuration.ConfigurationErrorsException) occurred in ZAPrivacyService.exe[3168]
The Just In Time Debugger was launched without necessary security permissions etc etc
Also the above error message appears very frequently and even if i ignore the dialogue it just keeps popping up every minute or so. I just off the JIT prompts but then I get an error message saying that no JIT is available. instead of the other error message. ZAPrivacyService seems to be part of ZoneAlarm. So I downloaded and reinstalled it. No joy. I tried uninstalling the Unity VS tools. I then went to Programs and Features to remove VS. However when I click on VS I only get the option to change. So I click change and the VS splash screen briefly appears. Then nothing. I also tried rerunning the VS installer(from the ISO and the web exe) and the same thing happens.
I do want to get VS running I thought a reinstall could fix it. But not to even be able to reinstall.....
Also how can I set Vs to ignore everything except the projects im working on IN VS?
Any ideas????
Thanks

Related

VS2015 Xamarin.Forms Android App: Debugging is Suddenly Broken

I have a Xamarin.Forms Android app that I have been developing in Visual Studio 2015 for several months.
Until today, I have been able to reliably debug the app in both the Android emulator and on a physical device. Now, suddenly, debugging the app in either of these environments results in numerous exceptions.
For example, during its startup sequence, my app initializes Xamarin Insights:
Insights.Initialize(apiKey, Forms.Context);
This has been working fine for months, but now it throws the following exception:
Java.Lang.SecurityException: ConnectivityService: Neither user 10133 nor current process has android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE.
I can work around this exception, either by commenting the above code line or by explicitly assigning permission ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE, but it wasn't necessary previously and I believe it is a red hering, since it is one of numerous new random exceptions that occur when debugging the app in Visual Studio.
I have reverted my codebase to a known working revision (one that is being successfully used by beta testers) and nothing changes.
I have tried restarting Visual Studio and rebooting the computer. I have also tried cleaning the solution (both from within Visual Studio and by physically removing all build artefacts) but none of these efforts have helped.
I am guessing that something has been corrupted in Visual Studio, but in view of the time it takes to reinstall, I am hoping that someone may have a suggestion for a quicker fix.
As you said that it works well if you add the "uses-permission" in the Mainfest, if so, do you debug your app in release mode or debug mode?
Like this document here:
https://developer.xamarin.com/guides/android/advanced_topics/working_with_androidmanifest.xml/
In the Release build version of the manifest (at obj/Debug/android/AndroidManifest.xml), these permissions are not automatically configured. You could add it from the project property.

Visual Studio 2015 Extensions Manager Index was out of range error

Env: Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition on Windows 8
Trying to open Tools --> Extensions and Updates results in the following error in a message box:
Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection.
Parameter name: index
Tried running as Admin, same result.
I've tried looking at the log but nothing mentions that error.
In the log there are 3 error entries related to extensions which could be related, they say the following:
Error loading extension: Could not find a part of the path 'C:\path\to\APPDATA\LOCAL\MICROSOFT\VISUALSTUDIO\14.0\EXTENSIONS\ZW2UF5JV.JVN\extension.vsixmanifest'.
The other 2 are identical except the odd string at the end is HQ1Y5EQD.TMG and 3KWE1LJF.Z1W.
Interestingly, just before those errors in the log appear, there is a line for each saying the extension was loaded successfully but if I try to go to the path it's got listed, it doesn't exist.
I can't find any reference to those strings on my machine. I've also searched the registry but can't find any reference in there either.
I can get into the Extensions manager if I click on one of the update notifications but the original error message just displays in the main pane and I can't do anything else. I can get to the online window but as soon as I click an extension, I am prompted with the original message.
I haven't installed any extensions or VS updates for a while but my Web Compiler extension extension has stopped auto compiling JSX files which is why I started trying to look at the Extension manager. I'm guessing the issues are related.
I can still work, compiling can be done manually which is inconvenient but not the end of the world. My worry is some other extensions are also misbehaving and I just haven't noticed yet.
Don't really want to re-install VS as a) it took ages last time and b) it might not fix the issue. Is there any good advice on troubleshooting the error or anything else I can try before I re-install?
I refreshed the GitHub extension on VS 2015 and got this error. Deleting the two cache files:
extensions.en-US.cache
extensionSdks.en-US.cache
from the AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\Extensions causes them to be rebuilt and eliminates the error.
No reinstall needed.
Problem got worse, I started getting the error message when starting Visual Studio and things like the package manager wouldn't load. Each restart seemed to yield a different combination of windows not loading, sometimes Solution Explorer, sometimes Team Explorer etc. Not good.
A repair to VS 2015 via the Control Panel took a while but didn't help, same problems.
I ended up completely uninstalling and trying to re-install. However the installer threw an index was out of range error but weirdly VS 2015 was now listed as an installed application again.
So I'm guessing the original uninstall left some problematic files lying around which messed up the next install. So I uninstalled again, renamed Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0 folder, cleared all files from AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\Extensions and re-installed.
It installed and ran fine.
The problem I now had was that I couldn't find the SQL Server Object Explorer window anywhere. I tried repairing SQL Server Data Tools but still no luck. So I uninstalled SSDT and then re-installed. This seemed to fix it.
Now I realised I also couldn't connect to Azure through the Server Explorer window, the option was simply not appearing in the list like it used to. This time a repair to Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 - v2.9 and a repair to Azure App Service Tools v2.9 - Visual Studio 2015 fixed that problem.
I confronted same issue and found this thread. I tried the above suggestions, but unfortunately, it went all unsuccessful. I even tried to uninstall/install with even worse result as Visual Studio became unable to start due to new "missing components" issue. Reinstallation was nothing better.
I finally came by a piece of magic. It was Visual Studio Uninstaller which although would remove all your installed extensions, it would perform a complete cleanup. It would save you from installing new Windows (at least it was my case.
Just go to releases and download the first zip file
This way you will be able to perform clean install of Visual Studio.

VS2012 Javascript Debugging Won't Work

For the last 2 days I have had a right pigs ear of a problem that I just have not been able to get past.
Any time I try to debug an Windows 8 store JavaScript app using VS2012 on my laptop I get the following error:
>Unable to start debugging 'C:\Windows\system32\wwahost.exe'.
>
>Microsoft Visual Studio Debugging Monitor (MSCVMON.EXE) failed to
>start. If this problem persists, please repair your Visual Studio
>installation vis 'Add or Remove Programs' in control panel.
This happens when I try to debug locally and in simulator.
This only happens for javascript projects, all other types of projects work fine.
So far the steps I have taken are:
repaired installation
installed update 1
Added all application packages to program files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VS7Debug on security tab.
uninstalled and re-installed
Nothing has worked.
Interestingly this error is about remote debugging which I am not trying to do, I didn't have remote debugging installed for 2012 but it was installed on my system for VS2008.
I installed it for VS2012 and opened the monitor while I tried to debug and nothing showed in the log.
I did an install using same VS2012 DVD on a fresh win8 desktop installation and it has no issues it all works fine although it did ask me on first run to set the permissions (I cant remember if it did this on my laptop).
I think the problem came when installing on my laptop it asked me if I wanted to import setting from previous versions of Visual Studio and I said yes.
I have done constant internet searching on this topic for last 2 days and some people are saying the problem is caused by VS2012 trying to open some VS2008 files but how to fix this is not clear.
When I uninstalled VS2012 and re-installed it didn't ask me if I wanted to import settings so I think I didn't fully un-install it (it still had a list of my recently accessed projects after the re-install).
Sorry for the long post but this has driven me crazy and I just cannot think of what to try next. Can anyone please help?

Visual Studio 2008 crashes and has to be restarted when I start the debugger

My Visual Studio crashes each time I try to debug my ASP.net application.
I've been working on this application for months and only now has this issue come up. I've tried rebooting to no avail.
When I press F5, Visual Studio immediately freezes up and displays no error message. I also get the exact same behavior when I use the "Attach to Process" option to start the debugger.
The problem happens only with a particular application I'm working on. If I create a new project, I can debug that project, but as soon as I open up my original project, it's the same story all over again.
Also, I should point out that the "development server" icons appear in the System tray and do not disappear after the frozen Visual Studio 2008 is terminated.
Has anyone else encountered this?
I had the sysadmin re-install VS2k8 for me. That fixed the problem.
For some odd reason, the uninstall process took a very long time that surprised even the sysadmin who uninstalled and reinstalled it for me. I wonder if that could have anything to do with the problem.
Anyhow, the reinstall got me up and running again.

VS2010 express beta2 - no add reference dialog, no open file/project dialogs

Just installed VS2010 express for Windows Phone last night. Install went smoothly. It creates a project, compiles, and deploys the app to the emulator.
Here's the problem: When I try to "Add Reference" through the Project menu, I do not get the Add Reference dialog box. Same thing if I right click References in the solution explorer and click Add Reference. That's not all. "File...Open" and "File...Open Project" also fail to throw up an open file dialog box. When attempting any of these actions, the IDE quickly loses and regains focus. Even pressing a keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+O) causes the IDE to quickly lose and regain focus, but no open file dialog box appears.
This is what I have tried, not particularly in this order:
1. Turned off UAC
2. Monitored file and registry access using Process Monitor during a File...Open operation. File activity showed mostly "SUCCESS" with a few "FAST IO DISALLOWED" and a few "INVALID DEVICE REQUEST" results. Registry activity showed mostly "SUCCESS" with some "NAME NOT FOUND" and a few "BUFFER OVERFLOW" results.
3. Created a new, clean Windows account to run the IDE from
4. Forced a test project to add a reference to "System.Xml.Linq" by editing the ".csproj" project file. Project failed to load in the IDE.
I don't have these problems at all on 2 other Windows 7 computers with VS2010 C# express beta 2 installed. One machine is 32bit and the other 64bit, both Home Premium edition.
My system: Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit
Other Visual Studio products installed: VS2008 C# express, VS2008 C++ express
One other thing to note: Several months ago I installed the non-phone distribution of VS2010 C# express beta 2, and I had the same exact problems. Back then I chalked it up to being beta and went back to VS2008 C# express, where I do not have these issues.
Matt, if you're still reading this post, I have a solution:
Do you have the Tablet PC Input Service disabled? Enable and start it. This was suggested to me over on the MSDN forums, and it worked for me immediately. I have this service disabled, but I turned it on, fired up VS2010, and it just worked right off. I confirmed this solution by turning the service off again, starting VS2010, and noting that it breaks once again. Turned the service on once more, started VS2010, and it works perfectly. Amazing.
I do not think it's acceptable to require this particular service just for VS2010 to function correctly. Hopefully they fix this in the inevitable service pack. FYI, I had this service disabled because I turn off all services I don't require. So now I have two "wisptis.exe" tasks eating up ~8MB of RAM and starting every time I turn on the PC. Or I can shut the service off again and just resort to my previous workaround. haha
Here is a work around.
Just run wisptis.exe from command line and start the visual studio.
If you don't wanna run each and every time you restarts the computer,then just put wisptis.exe in a .bat file and move it to the startup folder,so that it will be automatically executed on each and every startup.
EDIT 1 :- Or else just press 'WIN'+'R' and type 'wisptis' and press 'Enter'.
I experienced the exact same problem. I'm running VS2010 Express on Windows 7 (x64). Re-enabling the "Tablet Input" service "fixed" the problem.
VS2010 has always worked fine, and then suddenly for no apparent reason "ctrl-O", "Add Reference", "Open Project", and other similar functions stop working.
No amount of repair/uninstall/reinstall would fix the problem.
I always disable the "Tablet Input" service on Win 7, because I use a Wacom tablet, and dislike the visual notification of (tablet) mouse clicks this service causes. VS2010 has so far been working fine in this setup with Tablet input service disabled, but then suddenly the problem arose, and I had to re-enable the "Tablet Input" service to make it go away.
I have another computer with the exact same setup - Win 7 (x64), VS2010 Express, Wacom table, and disabled "Tablet Input" service - and here VS2010 is still working just fine. Both computers also have almost identical software installed and updates installed, so I still have no idea where the difference lies.
Has anyone had more luck in finding the root cause?
I also use Power Toys, but I have not been able to correlate this installation with the problematic behavior of VS2010.
I'm having close to the same issue with the exception that my New | Project dialog works, but Add Reference and Ctrl + O just cause the interface to lose focus and regain focus without every launching the dialog. I have tried running devenv /ResetAddin and devenv /ResetSkipPkgs, but neither helped. I have UAC turned off as well. I don't experience the issue with VS2008.
Here's my setup:
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate RTM
Visual Studio 2008 Team System Developer Edition with Team Explorer 2008 and VS2008 SP1
The only addins I run:
GhostDoc
.NET Reflector
Other Related Products I run:
Microsoft Expression Studio 3
SQL Server 2008 Developer Edition with SP1
tonight I uninstalled the VS2010 Express beta 2+phone tools and installed the now final RTM VS2010 Express C#. It STILL had the problem! For kicks, I tried importing a VS2008 project because it has some extra references in the project, and I was curious how they would be handled. The project imported successfully, but compiled with errors that it couldn't find a reference for a SyndicationFeed object, even though the reference for it was successfully added to the References list upon import. I remove the reference (System.ServiceModel.Web), hold my breath, and try to Add Reference one more time. Amazingly, the Add Reference dialog pops up, I add the reference back, recompile and bingo. File...Open and File...Open Project now throw up the proper file open dialogs as well.
To be sure this isn't a fluke only related to importing an old project, I shut down VS2010, start it back up, create a brand new project and try Add Reference. It works still. The File/Project dialogs also show up. I have no idea how, but importing a VS2008 project apparently made VS2010 correct itself on my machine.
Thank you for replying to my post. After hours of Googling over the past few days, your post is the first I've seen of anyone else having this issue besides me.
I found a workaround, but it's annoying having to do this:
1. Create a new project
2. Close VS2010, don't bother saving the new project
3. Start VS2010 again, and everything works as it should. I can access the Add Reference dialog, and I can do a File...Open and Open Project from the menu and toolbar.
If I close VS2010 and start it again, it is broken once more. Performing my workaround fixes it again for that session.
Still looking for a permanent solution.
I finally figured out a work-around. If I temporarily disable the Power Tools, the original Add References dialog opens fine. After adding my references, I can enable the Power Tools again.

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