I have an ASP.NET Core application which was running fine but while developing (and after the Windows 10 April update, most likely just a coincidence) suddenly, I got two messages:
This file does not have an app associated with it for performing this action. Please install an app or, if one is already installed,
create an association in the Default Apps Settings page.
Unable to start program 'programName' Invalid pointer
Result: I cannot debug/ run my application anymore. (Start Debugging/ Start Without Debugging)
I found some scary search results talking about a corrupt file system but I don't think that it is something like that in my case...
I checked my startup projects, restarted Visual Studio, restarted the whole system... nothing helped.
Update: After installing the latest Visual Studio update (15.7.1), the message I get when I activate the JavaScript debugging again has changed. Now it states:
Cannot connect to runtime process, timeout after 10000 ms - (reason:
Cannot connect to the target: connect ECONNREFUSED 123.0.0.0.1:53232)
Result: Still the same. Only the error message changed.
Any hints, ideas about that one? Thank you!
If not an answer at least a workaround. I can work again if I tweak the debug options
Debug -> Options -> General -> Enable JavaScript debugging for ASP.NET
(Chrome and IE)
If I disable this feature, I can debug and run my application again. But I still don't understand why this is happening now nor how to use JavaScript debugging now...
I had this problem with Visual Studio 2017. It was caused by my antivirus (bitdefender) blocking a chrome temp file. I set it to ignore that file and that fixed my debug issues.
The file was C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Temp\vschrome_diag.lnk
According to this, re-installing chrome may fix the problem.
Error launching vschrome_diag when Visual Studio 2017 starts debug on Chrome
I get this error: fatal error LNK1201: error writing to program database every time I edit my code and build again in visual studio 2003.
The issue is resolved if I restart VS2003 but I need to do this every time i build the project.
I have been googling and stackoverflowing ;) for a few hours and have tried the following proposed solution:
Change the Debug Information Format from Zi to Z7. (Property -> C/C++ -> General -> Debug Information Format)
This did not work
Change Visual Studio Compatibility Mode to Windows XP SP3
This did not work
Add the following in the Pre-Build Event : net stop "Machine Debug Manager"
net start "Machine Debug Manager"
This produced the following error: System Error 5 has occurred. Access is denied. This could be because I do not have Admin Access on this machine.
I have not tried this one because I am not allowed to download untrusted code at my work. Run FreePDB.cmd posted by Tony76 here
Changed the Symbol Path as seen here:
This did not work
What I know:
This error could occur if the pdb file exceeds 1GB but mine is only 10MB.
My limitations:
I do not have Admin Access on this computer
Cannot run untrusted software (Work Computer)
I came across the same problem when I was moving my VS project from old disk to new PC. Deleting all debug files eliminated the issue, maybe Clean-Build would solve it as well, but that is not what I have tried.
I use a program called LockHunter to unlock the PDB file. This works, though from time-to-time if stops successfully unlocking (or recognizing that the PDB file is locked) and I have to restart my PC
Had similar problem on Windows 10. This answer provides a solution using a tool called FreePDB. Worked for VS2003.NET, but apparently this solution works for multiple versions of Visual Studio.
Had similar issues when the solution was open in both VS2017 and VS2013. Fixed this issue by closing both the visual studio instances and re-opened the solution file.
Quick fix for some cases, close all msbuilds and running instances, some prior run may crashed and holding the some files/pdb
I had this issue in VS2017. Deleting the PDB mentionned in the error solved it for me.
As I start visual studio 13 it raises unknown error by saying "Microsoft Visual Studio 2014 has stop working" without any further explanation.
Here's what I've tried to solve this problem;
I reinstall .Net framework
I repair, uninstall-install Visual Studio
2013
I installed another version of VS13
but still the problem persists. Do you have any further suggestion ?
I am using Windows 8.
I've run into a similar situation described here. Once i find a solution, i will post it there.
As a first attempt i would try to generate a logfile via the /log option and see if there is a problematic extension that you could disable/deinstall, e.g. NuGet.
You say you reinstalled VS2013, so the problem might be related to settings. If reverting all settings is an option for you, see this thread on how to truly really reset your settings. This involves calling your devenv.exe with special parameters (e.g. in a cmd.exe), removing files and tinkering with the registry.
I have found the solution to this or a similar problem if you are starting Visual Studio by loading a solution file.
The symptoms are that a solution that previously could be loaded with no problems, suddenly starts having the unknown error box appear for every project in the solution. Sometimes you can't see the relationship to the continuous reappearance of the error message and the project loading, because you don't have the solution explorer open, so you aren't even aware there is a correlation.
The solution to this is to use task manager to stop visual studio, confirm with visual studio that you wish to shut it down and then look for the .suo file for the solution you are trying to load. In VS2012 it appears in the same directory as the solution file and has the extension solutionname.v11.suo while in VS2015 it appears in a hidden .vs directory under the location where the solution file is found, in a folder named for the solution.
Delete this file and the problem will go away.
The .suo file contains the user preferences for the solution you are trying to load and it is perfectly safe to delete it as it is regenerated when you load the solution.
If you are getting the unknown error when you haven't tried to load any solutions, this is probably not the right answer.
When I debugging in VS2013 update3, msvsmon.exe crashed when hit at a breakpoint.
It shows "The debugger's worker process (msvsmon.exe) unexpectedly exited. Debugging will be aborted".
I'm not using remote debug.
Is it possible to shut down the msvsmon.exe to avoid calling it when debugging ?
Deleting all of the breakpoints solves the problem when I hit this error. Disabling the breakpoints was not enough - they had to be deleted.
I was able to attach to a process numerous times. Once I added a conditional breakpoint (with a few checks), I started getting this error when attempting to attach to that same process.
The error provided in the question is one problem. I also received an error stating that a debugger was already attached when I tried again. Either way, deleting breakpoints solved it.
Try turning on Options > Debugging > General > "Use Managed Compatibility Mode"
I got this error/crash too while debugging and trying to inspect a variable with 50 MB of text data in it. This option worked in both VS2013 and in VS2015 to allow me to debug and inspect the variable with large data.
A couple of things that worked for me:
Try Closing VStudio and relaunching.
If not, reboot helps.[I know thats generic, but its worth a shot]
Disable unnecessary break points.
I had this error also, and I too have Astrill installed. Completely uninstalling Astrill fixed the issue.
I reached out to Astrill support, and they answered (within 2 hours) saying the correct fix is to hold Ctrl and press the "Help" button on the Astrill application, and then choose "Uninstall LSP". This has fixed the issue without needing to un-install Astrill.
I don't know what LSP is, but I presume it's some sort of proxy.
In my case, it was caused by a VPN software. It changed my hosts file and my localhost was not 127.0.0.1 anymore.
So check your localhost in the hosts file (e. g. %WINDIR%\System32\drivers\etc\hosts) and make sure it is 127.0.0.1.
This error just occurred for me with visual studio 2015 RTM. Deleting all the breakpoints resolved the "The debugger's worker process (msvsmon.exe) unexpectedly exited. Debugging will be aborted" condition.
So If you clear all your breakpoints, in your version, you will not need to avoid using MSVSMON.exe.
I was using the OzCode debugger extension. Unfortunately they don't have a way to completely disable the extension - you can only disable certain features - so I had to completely uninstall it to confirm it was what was contributing to the crashes.
I got the same error. No effect after deleting all breakpoints and repairing Visual Studio (I have 2013 Community Edition). The problem was the Bitdefender software. I have Bitdefender Internet Security 2016 and had set Active Thread Control (Modules->Antivirus) to Normal level. But after setting this settings to Permissive the error doesn't show up anymore.
This error occured to me, when I tried to debug with Visual Studio / Service Pack 3, when Service Pack 4 was already released. After updating to the Service Pack 4 I was able to debug.
So, try installing the newest version of Visual Studio
Regards
This (or something that manifests in exactly the same way) is still an issue in VS2017. In my case it was caused by a dependency being too large to debug. The dependency in question was a generated client for a large REST API. I was able to debug again after slimming down that dependency.
Here's yet another answer: I changed my project from "Platform Target: Any CPU" to "Platform Target: x86". Went from needing about 5 attempts to debug to working every single time.
I had previously tried every suggestion in this thread: I reinstalled, I killed all breakpoints, and looked for fishy software interactions.
I started getting this exact error today in my VS2019 project. Attempting to expand/inspect simple data structs in VS debugger would make it freeze for a minute and then I'd get that "The debugger's worker process (msvsmon.exe) unexpectedly exited. Debugging will be aborted" message:
If I add msvsmon.exe process to windows defender exclusions list, then the problem disappears.
I hit this in Visual Studio 2019 (16.4.3) (C++) with a cause that I have not seen mentioned: I had accidentally added a Watch with incorrect syntax that was attempting to instantiate a singleton rather than returning the existing instance.
Repeatedly choosing right click > Clear All in the Watches view while debugging fixed the issue.
Fixed by changing Options->Projects and Solutions->Web Projects -> Use 64bit version of IIS......... to False.
In my case i am using the wcf Service on the wpf application and inputting parameters from here.The Wpf Application Execution on Facing this error "The debugger's worker process (msvsmon.exe) unexpectedly exited. Debugging will be aborted".
That case i am hosing the Wcf service and run the wpf application exe
In this type of Execution on I didn't Facing any Error like -- "The debugger's worker process (msvsmon.exe) unexpectedly exited. Debugging will be aborted"
please,try this proceed error solved because some execution process didn't supporting the debugging..... we are removing the Debuggers on also we face same error.
that case on helped this process.......
I just experience this with VC2017 Community Edition 15.7.2. Turning off the Microsoft Symbol Server lookup while debugging fixed it for me.
I've just had the problem in VS 2015. I hadn't noticed that one of my breakpoints was bogus - I had inadvertently pressed F9 to set a breakpoint when the disassembly window was showing in the previous debugging session. The solution was simply to delete that one bogus breakpoint - I got to keep all my others.
I tried almost every answer in here, but for my case, nothing worked.
Switching to 32-bit just made Visual Studio 2019 crash instead of msvsmon.exe crashing.
What did work for me is to set a very early breakpoint and use that opportunity to close the "Parallel Stacks" window. I didn't need that anyway, but it was open by default in my layout.
In my case, I had this error when I had the "Locals" tab opened during debugging and hitting a breakpoint. For some reason VS might've been unable to display one of the local variables. The error disappeared when switched to a different tab before hitting the breakpoint where the error was occurring.
My problems started after moving a project to a new folder. I wasn't having any luck with any of these answers using VS2019. I even deleted the entire .vs folder thinking maybe something got corrupted. No luck.
But on a whim I tried starting the project with CTRL-F5 instead of just F5 and that actually worked. It's consistent. CTRL-F5 runs fine. F5 gives me the msvsmon.exe error.
I have no idea what's going on, but at least I can get the project to run again.
This problem is at least 1 1/2 years old maybe more. Today is 6-11-22 and I have the problem in Ms Studio Pro 2022 with a fresh install of windows 11 not much of anything else in the computer. Then I uninstalled it and install Ms Studio Community 2022 put in 1 breakpoint at the beginning and I got the error.
Today 6-12-22 I reinstall Ms Studio Community 2022. For some reason I switch from x86 to x64 went through a about 1000 changes of errors and a crashed form1.resx file thank goodness for a backup I had or I'd be done again. anyways so far have several break points with no problems.
I deleted all my watch variables. That fixed the problem for me.
I know it doesn't directly address the error, but as a workaround, I'm using the Rider IDE from JetBrains, and am not encountering the error (code, system, etc. the same).
Visual Studio version: Professional 2017, 15.5.4
Rider version: 2017.3
None of the other answers worked for me, when I encountered this error. If you are not actually remotely debugging, you can use another editor until you figure out the problem or it resolves itself (the latter was the case for me).
I have a Visual Studio 2010 solution containing several C# projects, with Resharper 5.1 installed and enabled. All these projects target the .NET Framework 4.
This solution has been working fine for months, but this morning I got the following message when the solution was loaded:
I've looked around for an explanation on the meaning of this message, but with little luck.
Additionally, I haven't been able to repro this error, and it doesn't seem to have broken anything on my project.
Still, I don't like these kind of unexplained errors, so I was wondering if anyone reading this knows the root cause?
Hmm, that's special. It must be a debugger notification, the part of VS that 'attaches' and makes "Managed" a category. The other category is "Unmanaged", a different kind of debugger interface. It clearly lost its marbles there.
Counter-measures, in order, are:
Restart VS.
Reboot
Install Service Pack 1, it has many debugger fixes.
Consider moving 3 up the list if you haven't installed it yet, there are a ton of bug fixes and tweaks and works well.
In Visual Studio 2012 and Windows 8.1, I had this problem,I changed X86 from Solution Properties/Build/Platform target then my problem resolved.
This has been nagging me for a while. Finally I found a solution.
When I press the help button they suggest I sort out the attached debug option. Without any result I finally managed to check the Enable SQL Server Debugging option under Project Properties - Debug.
I have the exact same setting as you: VS2010 with several C# projects pointing to Net 4 and Resharper 5.1. I'm on Windows XP SP3
I was getting the exact same error, along with an empty VS icon in the taskbar.
The empty icon got away when I shifted VS to my main monitor (I have 2) and restarted. It seems that VS doesn't like to be in the second monitor.
As for your error, I cleaned up the Resharper cache (I'm storing it in the TEMP folder, not the solution folder) restarted, and didn't get the error again
In Debug Menu - GoTo Solution Properties and select debug tab and tick the ENABLE SQL SERVER DEBUGGING checkbox