visual studio 2013 crash on opening xsl

Question

Every time I open a .xsl file with Visual Studio 2013 Update 4 it crashes. I get the error message below. Pretty useless. Any suggestions?

I am running VS in the administrator security context (run as). I do this so I can open and debug on my local IIS 7.5 (instead of the VS debugger / port).

I did install the Azure and SSDT extensions recently (VWDOrVs2013AzurePack.exe and SSDTSetup.exe). The latter failed to install correctly.

Error below. Thanks!

Application: devenv.exe Framework Version: v4.0.30319 Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception. Exception Info: System.Security.SecurityException Stack: at System.Security.CodeAccessSecurityEngine.Check(System.Object, System.Threading.StackCrawlMark ByRef, Boolean) at System.Security.CodeAccessSecurityEngine.Check(System.Security.CodeAccessPermission, System.Threading.StackCrawlMark ByRef) at System.Security.CodeAccessPermission.Demand() at System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.VerifyCodeBaseDiscovery(System.String) at System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.GetName(Boolean) at System.Reflection.Assembly.GetName() at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Design.Toolbox.AutoToolboxManagerService.OnAssemblyLoadWorker(System.Reflection.Assembly) at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Design.Toolbox.AutoToolboxManagerService+<>c__DisplayClass2.b__0() at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(System.Delegate, System.Object, Int32) at MS.Internal.Threading.ExceptionFilterHelper.TryCatchWhen(System.Object, System.Delegate, System.Object, Int32, System.Delegate) at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOpera tion.InvokeImpl() at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.InvokeInSecurityContext(System.Object) at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object, Boolean) at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object, Boolean) at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object) at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.Invoke() at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.ProcessQueue() at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.WndProcHook(IntPtr, Int32, IntPtr, IntPtr, Boolean ByRef) at MS.Win32.HwndWrapper.WndProc(IntPtr, Int32, IntPtr, IntPtr, Boolean ByRef) at MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.DispatcherCallbackOperation(System.Object) at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(System.Delegate, System.Object, Int32) at MS.Internal.Threading.ExceptionFilte rHelper.TryCatchWhen(System.Object, System.Delegate, System.Object, Int32, System.Delegate) at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.LegacyInvokeImpl(System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherPriority, System.TimeSpan, System.Delegate, System.Object, Int32) at MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.SubclassWndProc(IntPtr, Int32, IntPtr, IntPtr)

Faulting application name: devenv.exe, version: 12.0.31101.0, time stamp: 0x54548724
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 6.1.7601.18839, time stamp: 0x553e88ab
Exception code: 0xe0434352
Fault offset: 0x0000c42d
Faulting process id: 0x2260
Faulting application start time: 0x01d09ec4b4de9874
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\syswow64\KERNELBASE.dll
Report Id: dc09e38b-0ab8-11e5-9e99-10bf48466a8d

Answer 1

I worked around this issue. I renamed the xsl extension to xml. I worked on the file. Then I would rename it back to xsl before testing. I did that for several weeks, maybe a month.

One day I accidentally opened the xsl file before renaming it. I thought, "oh no! Its going to crash", but it didn't and I haven't experienced the problem since.

If I had to guess, I'd say VS cached something bad. Overtime, my editing cleared the cache and everything was pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows again.