Unable to copy file to server on build. Access to path is denied - visual-studio

I have a solution in Visual Studio that is comprised of 5 projects. The projects build to assemblies (.dll). I have the output path of each project set to \my-web-server\wwwroot\bin, which works fine on one project. In the properties for all of my projects, I have the output path set to the same directory, but when I try building all but one of the projects, I get the error:
Unable to copy file "obj\Release\Index.dll" to "\my-web-server\wwwroot\bin\Index.dll". Access to the path '\my-web-server\wwwroot\bin\Index.dll' is denied.
I assume it could be an issue with permissions, because my organization keeps things locked down, but I have no control over granting permissions. Any help in the right direction is much appreciated.

It must've been something silly. I deleted the .dll manually, then rebuilt. Looks like everything's working normally. Thanks.

The solution for me was to delete everything in bin and obj folders in every project. Just ran this powershell script as described here.

I had the same issue. A copy of Visual Studio (devenv.exe) was still running invisible in the background keeping the particular dll locked.

Delete all DLLs from the bin folder and build the solution.

just had the same issue, built a new project/solution, got it all working and then added to TFS.
Unfortunately I did not clean the build before adding and this meant some files that should not have been under source control were and were then read only(not checked out).
Manually deleting the files before rebuilding fixed the issue.

Most likely a program is running using that library.
This happens to me when running something to debug, and I forget to close it (not attached to IDE debugger).
And since this looks like a website, it is potentially due to the website being hosted from the development build folder, and someone is accessing it.

Similar to what Aequitarum said, it's mostly likely a locked file because it's in use. Since you have multiple projects, you mostly likely have references between them. And since you have all the projects outputting to the same folder any of the referenced projects will most likely get copied more than once if you have those files set to be deployed in the child project. (In a C# web application, you can view the properties of the reference and look at the "Copy Local" property.) And if you have the MsBuild project set to use multiple processors for the build, two child projects are both trying to copy the file at approximately the same time and one is erring out.
It's a very unique situation, but it is possible.

Working solution
Just go to Task Manager and search Detail (if its Win10) and search with your application name (for easy search just look at your windows user id wise)
And right click shows properties. just give the permission like Administrator access.
That's all its working fine for me. ( I was struggling for 1 week and its killed more my time)

It looks like WSearch Service locks up the files and does not release them. I disabled the service on WINDOWS 10 and was able to rebuild the solution.

Related

Visual Studio 2015 can't open project.exe for writing. Access to path denied

I am developing a VB.NET (4.5 framework) solution in Visual Studio 2015, Win10 OS, and have been able to run the builds uninhibited for several months, but now I am receiving the following error upon starting the build:
vbc : error BC2012: can't open
'C:\MyProject\ProjR5\ProjR5\obj\Debug\ProjR5.exe' for writing: Access
to the path 'C:\MyProj\ProjR5\ProjR5\obj\Debug\GenTagR5.exe' is
denied.
At first, VS2015 would give me the option to run the last successful build, but even that is no longer an option. After exhaustive internet searches on this problem, none of the dozen or so given solutions are solving my issue.
Here is what I have tried in order to resolve the error so far:
Ran sfc /scannow (elevated prompt)
Using ProcessExplorer, find handle or DLL substring that included my project
Made sure there were no hanging procs (including procs with my project name, devenv.exe, [project].exe, [myproject].vhost.exe, etc.)
Restarted VS2015
Restarted VS2015, running "as Administrator"
Restarted Computer
Full Shutdown of computer
Complete Rebuild of Solution
Build->Clean Solution
Build->Clean Solution, then Build->Build Solution
Build->Rebuild Solution
Uninstalled and Reinstalled VS2015
Disabled all indexing
Removed "Read Only" attribute from entire project folder and files within
Checked startup scripts for like- or identical processes
Disabled all AV apps
Disabled all antispyware apps
Disabled all firewalls
Verified that Application Experience (services.msc) wasn't disabled (I'm using
Win10 ... it isn't even in the list of services)
Set Tools->Options->Projects and Solutions->Build and Run->Max. parallel
builds to 1
Rerun aspnet_regiis.exe (under .NET\Framework)
Checked Local Security Policies and verified account was listed under
"Impersonate a client after authentication"
Removed \bin and \obj folders
Put \bin and \obj back when removing them didn't help
Removed \bin and \obj folders, then Rebuilt
None of these have worked. Any suggestions?
The problem ended up being Samsung Magician's Rapid Mode losing data during its write-caching phase to my solid state drive. I turned off Rapid Mode, and now the project builds without any problems.
Sorry for came too late, but i had this problem and i wanted to show how i fixed for the next devs who need a solution:
It's quite simple, just change your proyect assembly name:1) On your solution explorer: Right click on your proyect.
2) Properties>> aplication>> assembly name>> change it.
3) Compile, run to test it.
4) Change the name again if u wanted the original name.
Adding a description:
Changin the assembly name
New 2 programing in VS but i had same problem of Access or Write exe file ON BUILD.
Problem came out of nowhere. I didn't use or make changes 2 exe file in months,
made exe file, used it now and then and forgot about it....
Then after few months i wanted 2 start exe but no icon on desktop ??? ....tried everything, lost 3 days of searching inside code for error in VS and then called Google....
I read last comment ABOVE which mentioned Bitdefender, opened it and found BitD did block and isolate exe files ..... so i tried exluding files and folders which made problems inside BitD but no help....
So i went back 2 VS.
Within debug i got some X86 processor error which didnt make problem to build but it was warning (free component name in error description helped me ), - errors you can ignore but they are here on build ....
So i made last move before starting it all over again. Removed COMPONENT from application, deleted it on PC ...started VS from start .. and ALL was OK !!!
So in my case it was all about FREE component i used in app inside VS .... Bitdefender found some add / virus in it and blocked build progress.
BitD deleted or blocked exe file in start....
Hope this help anyone with similar problem !
The cause of this error for me was that Team Foundation Server had pulled in a bunch of files to my work space as Read-only. Not sure why it pulled them down from the server with read-only checked, but all I had to do was uncheck it.
Ok. Create a new solution and add its directories to the exception list and copy all your work, except for the '.vbproj' and except for the '.csproj' and the directory files to the directory of the directory of the new solution. I have tried that and it works, due that I have Bitdefender, it will be the only way to sort that issue. After doing so, try to build the app again. If it does not work, then I am definitely out of ideas.

All project references have yellow triangles every time solution is loaded

All my project (from the same solution) references are marked with a yellow triangle. The projects are all set to the same .NET version (4.5.1). The error log says:
The project 'CommonLibrary' cannot be referenced.
A way to temporarily fix the issue is to either:
Remove and re-add the references
Right click and choose Add Service Reference and immediatelly cancel.
However, the triangles come back every time I start the solution.
The solution is build successfully regardless or the issue. The real issue is that Resharper acts like the references don't exist.
Another thing that might be relevant is that I have 2 projects that are supposed to be unloaded but they become active every time I load the solution.
Any idea what to do with the issue?
I had similar issues and it usually comes down to the Target Framework (Project>Properties>Application). I was working on a solution using .NET 4.6 and for some reason the default framework for new projects have a different target (in my case it was 4.5.2). So make sure you check all your project at the very least have the same target framework.
Do the following:
In vs choose: tools->options->resharper->options-> general-> click the clear caches button.
then close all your opened tabs and shut down vs2013.
finally, start vs2013 again.
Let me know if that worked for you.
Try switching to managed compatibility mode in VS2013
you can do that by going to tools->options..->General tab and check the Use managed compatibility mode
I had the same thing happen but didn't suspect the 24 warnings I was getting was related to this error: Error 1 Unable to locate the .Net framework aspnet_merge.exe tool on path '~\Photo Archive\Main\etc\tools'. You need to set the msbuild property 'AspnetMergeToolPath' to the folder containing this tool. ODOT.PhotoArchive.Web
Trying to set the MS build property led to a lot of research just to find out WHICH property to set. So, Agent Ransack to the rescue -- searched my drive for the most recent version of the tool and copied it to the directory Visual Studio was complaining about.
Rebuilt the project with the idea of clearing the error but then the 24 warnings also disappeared.
FYI -- this is an MVC project which will replace a classic asp project. This might be peculiar to MVC projects.
At any rate, there was a lot of chasing snipes before this was finally tried. So, where this is happening, try handling any errors no matter how remote the possibility is they're related to the issue.
I had the same problem as you can see in this picture.
Its reason was the hidden folder. I had hidden the folder containing the project files. I got rid of this problem by unchecking the hidden attribute of the root folder containing the project files and restarting the visual studio.
Check it once, you might have checked the folder to be hidden.

Visual Studio keeps running the old build

I have a simple Silverlight program that displays a bunch of images. I modified it do display more images, but it when I hit "run without debugging" is keeps running the old build with fewer images. When I copy the code into a new project and run it, it works fine for the first time, but then each subsequent change is not displayed. What could be the problem? I'm using Visual Web Developer 2008 Express.
Always check "Configuration Manager" option on "Build" menu in Microsoft Visual Web Developer. The checkBox "build" has to be checked, otherwise it won't build.
Happened to me, I hope this helps others.
I just had this happen to me in VS 2013 for Web. Had to change the Project URL in:
"Project properties"
 "Web" tab
  "Servers"
To a different localhost number and recreate Virtual directory.
Before my Project URL was:
http://localhost:55487/
I changed it to:
http://localhost:55488/
Then clicked "Create Virtual Directory".
Would like to know why this happened in the first place.
I found that I had to close all open instances of Visual Studio before I got it working again
This happens because your cache memory is full. just go to you bin and obj folder and delete all the temporary files. Now it will run properly.
Maybe it's a caching issue (webbrowser / proxy).
To fool the browser try to embed the xap file with an additional parameter that changes every time you open the plugin:
<param name="source" value="ClientBin/BubuApp.xap?<%=Guid.NewGuid().ToString() %>"/>
If this don't help, try to clean the project (delete obj / bin folders & xap file).
I was also suffering from this issue and none of the suggestions worked. I was building a Office.js add-in and debugging was with IIS Express.
What fixed the issue for me was deleting files in
C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Temp\Temporary ASP.NET
Actually, I went ahead and and deleted the entire C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Temp folder out of spite :)
I also had this issue and while some of the fixes above helped temporarily, the one that worked for me was to remove the history and caching in Internet Options.
Go into Internet Option (also available in VS via Tools > options > Environment > Web Browser > Internet Explorer Options).
On the General tab click Settings in the Browsing History section.
On the Temporary Internet Files page select Every time I start
Internet Explorer
On the History tab set the Days to keep history to 0
On the Caches and Database tab make sure Allow website caches and
databases is NOT ticked.
I'm not sure if all of the above are required, but I've made a number of changes to files and so far they have been reflected straight away in the dynamic versions without any noticeable performance problems.
I've also since realised if I set 'Every time I visit the webpage' instead of 'Every time I start Internet Explorer' I don't have to stop and restart the project to see the changes. Which is how it should be!
I used to suffer this. All of this used to be (for me) a folder's contents issue.
Maybe you can check this:
Delete %windir%\microsoft.net\framework\v4.0xxx\Temporary
IIS Express: even if you change the output file for compiled results, you will see in applicationhost.config that many times IISExpress is really "looking" to the default bin folder of your project.
It is even possible that you have different configurations for Debug or Release, so maybe IIS is looking BIN with Release code, and you are now compiling in Debug to another folder, do you understand me?
Happened to me too. Well i dont know the exact reason for this behavior. But when i close the visual C express 10 and then open again and build it builds the new saved file. I guess it still hangs on to the old file when there is an error in some debug mode or something.
Stop all incntance of VS.
Delete all /bin, not just /bin/Debug. All /bin
Remove user option .suo file in solution dir. It will create on self.
Remove all restore windows point
Stop IIS.
6 Start IIS after 1 minutes.
Rebuild solution, Buid projects
It happing on me too. Very nasty. You may restart your computer.
Check for global asembly dll.
Just delete folder 'Release' in project with old code build.
I had the same problem and none of the answers were working for me. It turns out that building the ASP.Net project did not build the Silverlight project, so running without debugging didn't update the Silverlight.
Fix: Right click the Asp.Net project. Build Dependencies > Project Dependencies. Check the Silverlight project. Now building should work.
If this is a web application, change the Project URL with a new port number.
Example :
Change from http://localhost:3688/
To http://localhost:36881/
To do this:
Navigate to Project properties -> Web
Change the URL
Hit "Create Virtual Directory"
Finally, Build and RUN
I had this issue in a web site.
The site referenced 1 of the projects in the solution, and changes to it would not reflect in the debug.
Issue was a third project was referencing an outdated dll of the same same referenced project.
I removed the project and all references in other projects and readded and re-referenced everything and it worked fine.
Check you haven't got two versions of whichever file you're updating (one for one group of users, one for a different group of users).
In my case(VS 2015) it was because of the missing dll in the .exe directory... I made a "clean solution", then additionally deleted all bin and obj folders' contents. Reason to do so was VS keeping to load old dll build. Solution was to select folder of the running debug config, i.e. everytime I rebuild project destination location with dll and a reference to it stays with warning mark for some time until intellitrace does its job. After doing the setup mentioned above, I still have to do a manual rebuild on a project that generates a dll into specified dir. Pressing F5 does nothing, I don't have time to find out why... Main thing is its working for me
I had this recently too and I didn't see the answer here. I was changing an MMI to get rid of redundant buttons, and they didn't go away.
Really old legacy code. To make it keep user settings - like language - someone had made it keep the Settings. I was not allowed to change this, they want it like that.
To get rid of the old settings and allow new ones:
open regedit
navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER - Software - MyProject - SubProject
here you see Recent File List and Settings.
Delete Settings completely - don't worry, it will make a new one.
Please check is there any old .tlb file present in someother folder. In my case i was using the .tlb file generated using .NET dll and then created the .tlb file using RegAsm. I tried to use the .tlb file in vb6 code, it still refers old code only. After a long search i found same .tlb file older version found in Visual Studio\VB98 folder. I removed it then it worked fine. This may not be relevent for this issue but could give you another way of thinking
There is a scroll bar at the top which has 3 options:
debug
release
configuration manager
Make sure release is selected.
I had to clear browsing data and it worked in my case

VisualStudio2010 Debugging - The process cannot access the file ... because it is being used by another process

I'm unable to debug a WinForms C# application using the released version of Visual Studio 2010 Prof.
I get the following error message after the second debugging run.
Error 9 Unable to copy file "obj\x86\Debug\Arrowgrass Reports.exe" to "bin\Debug\Arrowgrass Reports.exe". The process cannot access the file 'bin\Debug\Arrowgrass Reports.exe' because it is being used by another process.
I've tried a pre-build script to attempt to delete this file, but it's locked by Visual Studio.
There are a few references to this on the net so it is a know problem. Does anyone have a hotfix or effective work-around?
I have found this issue very easy to reproduce, and the fix for me is a variation on Richard Fors' answer. If I have a UserControl open in the designer, run the debugger, and then edit the UserControl, the subsequent rebuild will fail. If I close the UserControl before running the debugger I never get this error, so I just make sure to close the designer window before hitting F5.
As of October 2012, I still have that issue so the VS 2010 SP1 didn't solve the problem. What I did, and worked consistently, was disabling the hosting process in the projects.
To disable the hosting process:
. Open a project in Visual Studio.
. On the Project menu, click Properties.
. Click the Debug tab.
. Clear the Enable the Visual Studio hosting process check box.
Source:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms185330(v=vs.100).aspx
You can try to kill the vshost.exe process:
taskkill /F /IM "Arrowgrass Reports.vshosts.exe"
You might also be lucky and simply be able to move the file in question. Moving the file can be done by adding the following lines of code to the pre-build event of your project:
if exist "$(TargetPath).locked" del "$(TargetPath).locked"
if exist "$(TargetPath)" if not exist "$(TargetPath).locked" move "$(TargetPath)" "$(TargetPath).locked"
Disabling windows search did not fix for me. However disabling Antivirus did (our Antivirus is Symantec Endpoint Protection 11)
As such, I was able to fix this for myself by changing the Debug settings in the project to point the working folder to a path on the C: drive, and then excepting that path from the antivirus auto-protect scan settings.
I hope this helps someone.
I posted this answer in a similar question but figured I'd also say it here:
Alright... this might sound pretty crazy.
I've had this problem in VS2010 for the last couple of years. The workaround mentioned here works for me, but a lot of times I forgot to close all my forms/usercontrols first.
I've discovered that merely going to view the open files via:
Computer Management (compmgmt.msc)->Shared Folders->Open Files
will "Free up" whichever file is being locked. Very strange, but it works for me!
In my case, I did Project Properties-->Security Tab-->Uncheck Click-Once security settings (If it is checked). It worked for me. In my project, it was showing this error for a C++ dll being used in my C# project.
The condition described can also be caused by the offending DLL or EXE referencing itself; in which case the Process Explorer test described previously never returns a match (e.g. it's not running). This unexpected situation seems to be caused during some sequence of operations in VS2010 (and likely all previous versions) which insidiously adds the reference behind the scenes. The specific cause of this hasn't been tracked down (or resolved that I know of). To check for, and resolve this error simply make sure the offending DLL or EXE is not listed as a reference to itself.
Got the error ("The process cannot access the file … because it is being used by another process") when I modified the (Visual Studio 2010 C# Express with SP1) solution from two large (10 source files, ~500 lines per file) projects with one referencing the other, to lots (6) of smaller projects with lots of projects referencing other projects.
The references were to the dll- and exe files (the Debug versions of them), NOT to the projects even though the projects were in the same solution.
I then learned that references should be to projects, not files, for F12 to work properly. So I modified the references. That made F12 work (jump to the source file instead of some auto-generated interface description), and at the same time the "cannot access file" error during build disappeared.
I only got the "cannot access file" error when doing Release builds. The references were to the Debug versions of exe/dll's. I suspect that this mixing is what triggers the bug in VS.
I encountered this issue when developing windows services. I found out that it happens when the service is running. Thus, you only need to stop the service (from the services.msc console) and you're good to go !
Hope this helps.
Tidjani.
Check Task Manager for the specified process and End the process explicitly. This solution worked for me.
I cant' write to a comment since not at 50 points but for me I excluded my project folder in ESET Enpoint Security ver 5. Seems like it blocked/hogged some files. My Error did not state which exe or file was in use so it took a long time to finally get to what JoeC said about Antivirus and tried it. Seems to be working now (Visual Studio 2010 SP1)
Closing recently changed User Controls solved the problem in my scenario. Hope this will help somebody out there.
Looks like this issue has (finally!) been fixed in the VS2010 SP1
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=75568aa6-8107-475d-948a-ef22627e57a5&displaylang=en
Please try uninstalling Windows Live SYNC. Does it still happen?
I think I just found the culprit and the solution.
Go to services and stop & disable the "windows search" service.
That solved the problem for me now.
For me the solution was to change the startup project to a dll (problem only occurs in debug mode when having an application as the startup project). If your solution contains several projects (and it will, and it will contain a .dll, else you would not get the problem), switch to that .dll, no .vshost.exe, no problem.
Also, killing .vshost.exe did not work for me, since immediately after starting again, it had locked the .dll.
Also, make sure to have your references clean, especially in more complex projects, and also prefer project references to assembly references, and so on. I suppose bad references (circular and similar) are bound to cause problems, at least so I have read.
A short article by me on this problem (and my solution)
How to "clean up" your references in a solution
Adding the following to the Pre-build event of the shared dll worked for me:
if exist "$(TargetPath).locked*" del "$(TargetPath).locked*"
set exitprebuildfor$(ProjectName)=
for /l %%a in (1,1,10) do (
if defined exitprebuildfor$(ProjectName) goto :ok
if not exist "$(TargetPath).locked%%a" if exist "$(TargetPath)" move "$(TargetPath)" "$(TargetPath).locked%%a" & set exitprebuildfor$(ProjectName)=1)
:ok
set exitprebuildfor$(ProjectName)=
It's based on the solution given here but instead of just renaming the dll to .locked it keeps trying to rename it to .locked1, locked2. Using 10 I usually run into the problem once a day, but ant value can be used.
Simply make a copy of the whole project and run project from the new copy.... it will work fine.
But you will have to end process of the debug somehow in-order to delete the older project.
Stop IIS service and try building it again or if you can afford to restart your pc, give it a try. Worked for me both ways.
Cheers
My problem was that Outlook 2010 (outlook.exe) was using the same port as my ASP.NET MVC project with IIS express.
Solution: close outlook.exe, run your solution and open outlook again (so that it uses another port).
Hopefully this helps somebody, because I received the same error message as described in this topic.
Try deleting .exe file in debug or release folder (whatever you working on)
Windows will prompt that the process X has opened this and you can't delete it
after that go to task manager and in details tab end task X process
Delete obj file.And stop your service and Restart again.Then you may solve the problem
The best solution for me was to move my project files out of My Documents - which is on a server managed by the IT department - and locate them locally on my C drive. Also working: unchecking the "Enable the Visual Studio hosting process" checkbox, as stated by other people.
If you are working on a C# project which is using reference of C DLL, then you can eliminate the error by checking the Allow unsafe code check box. I know I have not used pointers in my C# project but I was using some bitwise operator in C#. May be these C-like features morphed it as 'Unsafe' code.
What worked for me was removing "read only" status on the bin folder. Once I did that, it has worked ever since.
I've had this error when the project is on a remote share (like, if your $env:homepath is helpfully redirected by your IT department to a network share). Make sure your project is resident on a local drive.
My problem started after creating a custom control and drag and drop it to the toolbox palette for use it in design forms. First appeared a warning saying that there was a redundance between the custom control source file (.cs) and the projects executable (.exe). On executing/debugging appeared the error: unable to access the (.exe) because it's being used (and it was true).
A literally removed the whole source code regarding the custom control and last problem never stopped, until I checked out the references and it was referencing itself in order to be "able to" get the former custom control. I removed the reference and done!!
So: just check the references and remove the self-reference to the project.
Delete your Bin folder and run the application.
This worked for me. :)
Simply turn off Visual Studio hosting in debug, run the project and again re on it and run project.
Open a project in Visual Studio.
. On the Project menu, click Properties.
. Click the Debug tab.
. Clear the Enable the Visual Studio hosting process check box
For Windows Project
The Visual Studio hosting process can hold the executable file pointer. To stop the host instance, open the Project properties and then go to Debug tab. Now uncheck the Enable the Visual Studio hosting Process option and then check the checkbox again to debug.
For web project
The IIS can hold the file pointer. Restarting the IIS can solve the issue.

MSTest run fails because source assembly is not trusted

I just added xUnit to our test project (for the Asserts, we're still using MSTest as the framework) and immediately the test runs refused to execute any of the tests. This is the error message:
Failed to queue test run '{ .... }'
Test run deployment issue: The
location of the file or directory
'...xUnit.dll' is not trusted.
It took me a few tries to find the answer in Google, so I'm putting it here in case anyone else runs into the same problem. A detailed description can be found at this blog posting.
Basically, the fix invovles right-clicking on the dll file (xunit.dll for example) in Windows Explorer, going to Properties, and clicking "Unblock" at the bottom of the tab next to the 'Security' text. It seems that Vista / Windows 2008 will automatically mark assemblies that come from other machines or the internet as unsafe.
As a couple commenters have mentioned, you may also need to restart Visual Studio for this to take effect.
In my team we had the same problem.
Your solution didn't work, but this post by Charles Sterling did help.
We used the following line:
caspol -machine -addgroup 1 -url file://\\server/share/* FullTrust -name DevShare
After having this issue and burning hours trying to get "Unblock" to stick longer than a few minutes and/or figuring out caspol to no avail, I finally found a little tidbit via Google that the assemblies will be blocked again the next time you build or rebuild the project, since they're re-copied from their original source location. (I guess I never noticed that this happened before with references assemblies, but anyway...)
My fix for this was the following:
Copy all the needed DLLs to another
spot for safe-keeping
Remove the
references in Visual Studio
Physically delete the DLLs in the
bin folder
Unblock the DLLs
individually in the spot where they
were copied off
Add the references
back in Visual Studio from the
holding spot
Every subsequent build or rebuild worked fine afterward.
Running on an XP machine (even with .NET 3.5 SP1 installed) I was not able to get any of the other solutions listed here to work.
However working from the same post by Charles Sterling that Davy Landman references, I finally succeeded with this variation:
Run the .NET 2.0 Configuration tool (Settings... Control Panel... Administrative Tools... .NET Framework 2.0 Configuration)
Click down to "My Computer ... Runtime Security Policy ... Machine ... Code Groups ... All_Code"
Create a new code group with membership condition of "Zone"="Local Intranet" and assign the permission set "FullTrust"
Restart Visual Studio
After these steps I am able to run tests, including after restarts and rebuilds.
EDIT: as described in this answer, you may need to install the .NET SDK (which is different from the .NET framework) in order to have the .NET 2.0 Configuration tool on your system.
I had the same problem with moq. But would not 'unblock'. Every time I unblocked it, it was still blocked!?!?
I had to unblock the original zip file I downloaded. Then copy the DLL from the zip file again. It work after that.
It may seem really obvious now, but when I was clicking unblock the file was set as read-only.
Only after un-checking that attribute, applying, then selecting unblock did I actually get this working.
Give that a go.
:)
PS: I also deleted all the old dll's in my bin folder, just to make sure Visual Studio wasn't picking up the old one.
I had the same problem with downloaded DLLs blocked by Vista.
You need Administrator rights to get the "Unblock" button on the file's Properties.
I simply replaced the DLLs with the latest version from source control (TFS) where I had committed them before.
Go to file
Right click and select Properties
On the first Register click on Allow
I also tried opening the file in notepad++ and renaming it.
Slightly different approach, but it worked for me. The local file system then think it comes from the same machine.
It's not just the moq.dll that needs to be unblocked. The latest zip file includes an moq.xml and moq.pdb file - referencing the dll copies these other two files to the bin folders as well. If all three have not been unblocked the tests won't run, I found.

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