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I'm getting an "Unrecognized Guid format" error when I try to open my project in Visual Studio 2015 on a Windows 10 machine (upgraded from Windows 7).

This did not always occur for me. I originally made VS studio open as administrator (because my project needed it at the time) by following the steps in the anwser here: Can you force Visual Studio to always run as an Administrator in Windows 8? I then decided I wanted to switch back to not having it open as admin. To try and switch back I again ran the compatibility troubleshooter, this time I selected "try recommended settings". After doing this I am now getting the Guid error every time I open my project and I can no longer run it. I even get it if I open VS as admin like I did before.

I even tried uninstalling Visual Studio and reinstalling it but that did not work either.

Community
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user2481095
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2 Answers2

49

I am guessing you used to run Visual Studio as Administrator. This did it for me. The answer is to delete the compatibility entry in the registry.

  1. Type Windows+R on the keyboard to open the Run dialog
  2. Type regedit and press enter
  3. Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers
  4. Delete the Visual Studio entry
SSS
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bibble235
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9

I fixed this on Windows 10 by using the Troubleshoot compatibility tool. It has to do with an extra checkbox being enabled.

  • Navigate to devenv.exe by right clicking Visual Studio from start, click properties, and select "Open File Location...".

  • Right click on devenv.exe and select "Troubleshoot Compatibility".

  • Click "Troubleshoot Program"

  • Uncheck "it worked with older versions of windows"

  • Click "Next"

  • Click "Test the program"

  • Confirm everything opens correctly

  • Click "Next"

  • Click "Yes, save these settings for this program"

Paul Ivanov
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