Visual Studio 2012 Side by side configuration is incorrect

Question

When I run Visual Studio 2012 Professional I get a side by side configuration error message.

Message:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe

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

Event log:

"Activation context generation failed for "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe". Dependent Assembly coloader80.dll,processorArchitecture="X86",type="win32",version="1.0.0.0" could not be found. Please use sxstrace.exe for detailed diagnosis."

sxstrace.exe: http://pastebin.com/qgS3Sx8c

I've already installed vcredist_x86

I'm running Windows 7 Professional

Loella

That DLL should be present in your C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE directory. The error message says it is missing or that its version is incorrect. The timestamp on mine is July 26th 2012 and is 102,864 bytes long. – Candleberry

Answer 1

I had the same issue in that several files were not copied over to the VS2012 directories and it caused the 'side by side' issues. In my case I was installing from a drive that was on the network. After installing / uninstalling / reinstalling over and over without success I finally moved the install media to my local hard drive. Then, I was able to uninstall and then reinstall successfully. I believe the problem is that when the install has to reboot and continue installing it can't find the install media 'in time' so then it fails. If you are installing from a 'remote drive' I would suggest moving the install media to a local drive and then trying again.

Grethel

Answer 2

I encountered this problem today and found a crude way to solve it for me, without analyzing logs and looking for missing .dlls.

I opened up the system configuration and was about to de-intall VS2013 RC, when I realized there was an repair option. Trying this brought no effect, but I also saw that VS2012 for windows desktop and vs2012 for web were still installed.

So after a reboot this finally fixed my side-by-side error:

1. Cleanse the machine of any previously installed Visual Studio versions.
2. Reboot.
3. Repair the installed (and only left) version of Visual Studio
4. Reboot.

Maybe this is of use for everyone else who is encountering this problem in the future.

Kind regards

Xochitlxp