10

I'm trying to launch Visual Studio 2010 from my desktop and I just get this error box popping up saying "Unknown Error"...

Anyone have an idea why this might happen?

ThinkingStiff
  • 64,767
  • 30
  • 146
  • 239

5 Answers5

11

I just fixed it, I uninstalled and reinstalled my version of the .NET Framework (v4.0). And then when I again tried to launch Visual studio it started up without any issue.

  • 1
    I had exactly the same problem after uninstalling Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview. This worked for me. I also had another problem afterwards - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8497931/msbuild-does-not-contain-a-value-for-the-vctargetspath-property – Mark Ingram Aug 23 '12 at 08:52
7

Here's some things you can check:

Based on your comment below, if you can't find the DevEnv.exe when you have opened a VIsual Studio Command prompt, I would suggest you to re-install Visual Studio as it indicates your installation (paths) are in a bad state.

And here are some other things you migh want to check:
VS 2010 Crashes on Startup with "Unknown Error"
Visual Studio 2010 quit working...now gives me an "unknown error" dialogue when launched
Visual Studio 2010 Startup Errors
Visual Studio 2010 crashes on startup after installing SP1

Magnus Johansson
  • 28,010
  • 19
  • 106
  • 164
  • I'm going to sound pretty stupid here.. But how exactly do you do this? This is the first time I'm going to work with C#. I'm literally doing my first 'hello world' tut here... –  Jun 06 '12 at 08:17
  • I have added links that describes how to do the different steps, hope that helps – Magnus Johansson Jun 06 '12 at 08:29
  • What's the reason for downvoting? Please at least comment on why you feel that my answer should be downvoted. – Magnus Johansson Aug 23 '12 at 09:12
2

Open Visual Studio Command Prompt with Administrator permission and type the following,

devenv /ResetSkipPkgs
Rajesh Subramanian
  • 6,400
  • 5
  • 29
  • 42
  • After doing that it says "devenv is not recoginised as a internal or external command, bath file... etc etc etc..." –  Jun 06 '12 at 08:21
  • 1
    are you running Visual Studio command prompt or normal one. If it is normal one, cd . THen try above command – Rajesh Subramanian Jun 06 '12 at 09:04
  • run the "Visual Studio command Promt", not the standard windows one. Go `Start=>Programs=>VS2010=>VS tools` – serhio Jun 11 '12 at 07:53
1

the Solution of this problem ist very simple.

Install VS 2010 on a other machine and export HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0 to a file. Copy the file to your target machine and rename the path above to ".old", then double click your exported reg-file and wait a time....

After this my Visual Studio was starting correctly.

The other solution, that people post wont work in my case.

I hope this will help some body.

Enjoy

Sven

Sven
  • 11
  • 1
  • VS 2015 had the same registry problems. $ devenv Cannot find one or more components. devenv said Please reinstall the application, devenv /resetuserdata said "Unknown Error.". Fixed with HLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\ key export, rename to 14.0.broken and import from saved .reg file. Many thanks. – Andrew May 07 '16 at 16:53
0

I had the same problem.. Instead of completely uninstalling .net framework, I just repaired the .net framework from the repair/uninstall option available in Control Panel of my Windows 7 Ultimate pc. Finally I got another error that, Visual Studio could not create AppData folder in my system. Then, I right click the Visual Studio icon and selected Run as Administrator. This worked for me!! Now, Visual Studio 2010 is working on my pc!! Try this out if you want..

Sowmya Krishnan
  • 3
  • 3