Visual Studio 2015 won't start: side-by-side configuration is incorrect

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When installing VS 2015, the installer was interrupted and the process was terminated. Later I successfully ran the installer again. However, the program won't start. Clicking the icon does nothing. I tried running 'devenv.exe' manually and got this message:

Program 'devenv.exe' failed to run: The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log or use the command-line sxstrace.exe tool for more detailAt line:1 char:1

Using sxstrace.exe, I got the log, which is huge. Notably, this appears multiple times:

INFO: Did not find the assembly in WinSxS.

and it ends with this message:

ERROR: Cannot resolve reference coloader80.dll,processorArchitecture="X86",type="win32",version="1.0.0.0".

I have tried repairing the installation as well as uninstalling/reinstalling. I also tried a forced uninstall ([installer_file] /uninstall /force).

I'm using the web installer.

side-by-side visual-studio-2015 visual-studio
3 Answers

If anyone is struggling with similar error in VS 2019 (like I just was) there might be an easier way than uninstalling and reinstalling everything.

After I was running:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe"

The error was:

The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log or use the command-line sxstrace.exe tool for more detail.

Initially I even though the errors might be coming from Registry settings Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide\Winners\ as also suggested on some websites, but it wasn't the case.

I have also reinstalled both vcredist2015_2017_2019_x64.exe and vcredist2015_2017_2019_x86.exe, but this was not needed it seems.

As Visual Studio 2019 was still not starting I checked the Event Viewer logs. There under Administrative Events I have finally noticed SideBySide errors.

The errors were:

Activation context generation failed for "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe".Error in manifest or policy file "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\Common7\IDE\VC\VC.MANIFEST" on line 0. Invalid Xml syntax.

and

Activation context generation failed for "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe".Error in manifest or policy file "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\Common7\IDE\VsWizards.MANIFEST" on line 0. Invalid Xml syntax.

I tried simple renaming of the files affected: VC.MANIFEST to VC.MANIFEST_ VsWizards.MANIFEST to VsWizards.MANIFEST_ and afterwards VS 2019 started without a problem. The absence of the files doesn't seem to bother the program.

user_124967080

I have visual studio 2012 already installed. After installing Visual studio 2015 I got that side by side error. After performing following simple steps issue solved.

  1. Control Panel\Programs\Programs and Features -> select visual studio 2015 from list -> change -> repair.

Note:- Keep your internet connection on. That's it for me.

user_82138660
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