Microsoft Sql Server Management Studio 18 (SSMS) v18.5 won't load

Question

SSMS v18.5 just started not loading. The splash page displays, it's using CPU, but never completes. When I start ssms.exe with the -log command line parameter, I'm getting a few of these type of errors in the log.

  <entry>
    <record>28</record>
    <time>2020/05/12 02:18:57.833</time>
    <type>Error</type>
    <source>Microsoft Visual Studio Appid Stub</source>
    <description>SyncLock called without an initialized synchronization object</description>
  </entry>


  <entry>
    <record>143</record>
    <time>2020/05/12 02:18:59.598</time>
    <type>Error</type>
    <source>Extension Manager</source>
    <description>Could not load file or assembly &apos;Microsoft.ServiceHub.Client, Version=1.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a&apos; or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified. </description>
  </entry>

I've tried doing a repair, uninstall/reinstall and nothing works.

Does anyone have any ideas to try?

Answer 1

I ran procmon and saw that it was trying to access Apex SQL Search, which didn't make sense since i had completely uninstalled and reinstalled. So i uninstalled Apex SQL Search and that resolved my problem.