Visual Studio 2015 community edition crashes at startup

Question

I was cleaning my documents folder the other day and must have accidentally deleted this particular file below. Visual Studio shows the message below after starting and then crashes after clicking ok.

I've reloaded the commuunity edition three times, installed the Express edition (which works). Reloaded SQL and .NET 4.6. I do have an activity log, but can't understand what it's trying to tell me.

I downloaded the Visual Studio Install cleanup tool which wiped 160 items, reinstalled and still the same issue happens. I've tried devenv.exe /resetsettings option at command line. No Luck...

I found the activity log to contain multiple errors these are just a few.

If this is just a matter of a missing vssettings file why doesn't the new install create one?

Update 06-22: After Anders kindly provide a new vssettings file. It booted to this point and then went down.

Answer 1

I spent three days patiently trying to correct the fact Visual Studio wasn't working because I had deleted the vssettings.settings file accidentally. When I was given a copy of that file it went farther but it would crash each time it started.

So I repeatedly reinstalled and removed VS2015 with different results each time all failing to start VS2015... Almost as if the installer doesn't know how to do a completely fresh install if there is residual VS content on the system.

Look In the Application Event Log

I then found this in the application event viewer. "Coloader80 could not be found"

I scoured the internet and found a post that someone discovered that you have to not only uninstall VS2015; but need to remove all VS folders in APPDATA local and remote as well as in Program files. I even went as far are removing the visualstudiocommon folder. I then got rid of all "duplicate" C++ installs via add remove pgms.

Solution

1. Uninstall all VS versions on the machine. Community, Express etc.
2. Get rid of all C++ installations via Add/remove pgms.
3. Manually delete Program Files Visual Studio 10,12 and 14.0 folders.
4. Manually delete all AppData local and remote folders in Microsoft folder that have any reference to VisualStudio, note this included VisualStudio.Common which was in it's own folder
5. Reinstall VS2015
6. If you have different error this time, "Repair" VS2015 which took an extraordinary long time to do. It goes through entire reinstall.
7. Rebooted the machine and started up VS... MEF components loaded and it took a long time to show the main menu.
8. Waited about 5 minutes or more to let everything settle down
9. Created a new UWP app of which the NUGET job to download DLLS took about 5 minutes.
   10. Was able to build and run a New UWP! Yes... finally...

I do not know the root cause of this whole situation, but found two distinct different issues 1) The coloader80.dll missing and 2) Visual Studio would just crash attempting to start. And the application event log was telling me .net was throwing unhandled exceptions.

Application: devenv.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.Xml.XmlException
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(System.Exception)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseDocumentContent()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Read()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReader.Read()
   at System.Configuration.XmlUtil..ctor(System.IO.Stream, System.String, Boolean, System.Configuration.ConfigurationSchemaErrors)
   at System.Configuration.BaseConfigurationRecord.InitConfigFromFile()

Exception Info: System.Configuration.ConfigurationErrorsException
   at System.Configuration.ConfigurationSchemaErrors.ThrowIfErrors(Boolean)
   at System.Configuration.BaseConfigurationRecord.ThrowIfParseErrors(System.Configuration.ConfigurationSchemaErrors)
   at System.Configuration.BaseConfigurationRecord.ThrowIfInitErrors()
   at System.Configuration.ClientConfigurationSystem.OnConfigRemoved(System.Object, System.Configuration.Internal.InternalConfigEventArgs)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Telemetry.WindowsErrorReporting.WatsonReport.GetClrWatsonExceptionInfo(System.Exception)

Exception Info: System.Configuration.ConfigurationErrorsException
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.VsTask.InternalGetResult(Boolean)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.VsTask.GetResult()
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Connected.ConnectedUser.ConnectedUserManager+<ResolveFWLinkThroughVsWebProxy>d__79.MoveNext()
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(System.Threading.Tasks.Task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(System.Threading.Tasks.Task)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Connected.ConnectedUser.ConnectedUserManager+<ResolveFWLinkAsync>d__47.MoveNext()
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(System.Threading.Tasks.Task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(System.Threading.Tasks.Task)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Connected.ConnectedUser.BaseUserContext+<PrepareToConnectAndComputeCodeMarker>d__57.MoveNext()
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(System.Threading.Tasks.Task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(System.Threading.Tasks.Task)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Connected.ConnectedUser.BaseUserSession+<ConnectAsyncImpl>d__48.MoveNext()
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(System.Threading.Tasks.Task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(System.Threading.Tasks.Task)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Connected.ConnectedUser.BaseUserSession+<ConnectAsync>d__37.MoveNext()
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(System.Threading.Tasks.Task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(System.Threading.Tasks.Task)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Connected.ConnectedUser.BaseUserSession+<PollConnectAsync>d__49.MoveNext()
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(System.Threading.Tasks.Task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(System.Threading.Tasks.Task)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Connected.ConnectedUser.Poller+<PollAsync>d__13.MoveNext()
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.AsyncMethodBuilderCore+<>c.<ThrowAsync>b__6_1(System.Object)
   at System.Threading.QueueUserWorkItemCallback.WaitCallback_Context(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.QueueUserWorkItemCallback.System.Threading.IThreadPoolWorkItem.ExecuteWorkItem()
   at System.Threading.ThreadPoolWorkQueue.Dispatch()
   at System.Threading._ThreadPoolWaitCallback.PerformWaitCallback()

I hope this helps someone in the future...

Answer 2

It looks like you can import the settings from different machine please check this link.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1x6229t8(VS.80).aspx

Answer 3

The solution to the first error message above is to have someone give you a vssettings file. VS cannot handle it when it's missing. The install does not apparently create one either!

I still have other issues but will work those out on other posts. Thanks everyone for your help!