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I'm running Visual Studio Express 2012 on Windows 7. I've been running it with no problems for several months now.

Last Friday, when I shut down my PC, a lot of Windows updates were installed. This morning, when I started up and opened a VS2012 solution, I got this error message:

This program has known compatibility issues

...

Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows Desktop is incompatible with this version of Windows.

There's a button for Run Program, and when I click it, the solution opens normally. I haven't changed anything about my Windows configuration. This happens every time I open a solution. Did MS release a flawed patch in the batch of updates that got applied last Friday?

EDIT: I'm not sure why people are voting to close this question. The answer that's been linked to isn't related to my issue; that answer seems to pertain to trying to open a VS2012 project in VS2010. I'm trying to open a VS2012 project in VS2012. If you really think that the question needs to be closed, please let me know why in the comments, so that I can change it appropriately.

The .NET updates installed on Friday were:

  • KB2805226
  • KB2805221
  • KB2804582

UPDATE: I gave up, more or less, and clicked the "Don't show this window again" checkbox on the error window. Visual Studio seems to be running ok.

sigil
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    @Yvette: That's a different problem. – Robert Harvey Jun 03 '13 at 16:54
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    @Yvette: It's a completely different error message. How likely is it that it's the same problem? – Robert Harvey Jun 03 '13 at 16:59
  • The "Windows Desktop" part stands out to me. Perhaps it's a bug in the .NET framework regarding Windows 8 apps? (I'm not all that familiar with how Windows 8 works, but I do know there are certain programs that only run in desktop mode or Metro mode due to differences in API, so I wonder if it's somehow related to a check in the .NET framework that isn't supposed to be used in Windows 7.) – JAB Jun 03 '13 at 19:11
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    Why the "off-topic" close votes? From the FAQ: ["if your question generally covers…**software tools commonly used by programmers**"](http://stackoverflow.com/faq#questions) … – Peter Majeed Jun 03 '13 at 19:19
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    This does not yet appear to be a widespread problem, which is odd. Document your question, use Control Panel + Windows Update + View update history. List the updates that got installed on your machine on Friday. If you don't want to deal with this then rewinding to the system restore point ought to be a workaround for now. – Hans Passant Jun 03 '13 at 19:32
  • @HansPassant, I've added a list of the updates to my original question. – sigil Jun 03 '13 at 19:53
  • All three of them are .NET 4.5 updates. The first one does seem to affect how projects are loaded. Look in the VS Help + About dialog, check if it says "Update 1" or "Update 2" after the VS version number. If not, you ought to install them. – Hans Passant Jun 03 '13 at 20:15
  • @HansPassant: According to the About window, VS is running Update 1. – sigil Jun 03 '13 at 20:27
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    I see absolutely no justification either for closing this question as off-topic. As @PeterMajeed pointed out, it covers software tools commonly used by programmers, and so is certainly within the scope of the FAQ. Additionally, it was the first meaningful result in a Google search that I conducted for this very problem that actually even attempts to address it. – jammycakes Jun 06 '13 at 10:01
  • Problem also occurs with other versions of Visual Studio (mine is VS 2012 Ultimate, Update 1.) – jammycakes Jun 06 '13 at 10:04
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    We are patiently waiting for *somebody* with this problem to install Update 2. It does seem to take an unusually long time to do the obvious thing. – Hans Passant Jun 06 '13 at 13:12
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    @HansPassant, you might be interested in knowing that Update 2 has a problem building for Windows XP. If you need to target XP you need to skip 2 and wait for 3, which I don't think is officially out yet. – Mark Ransom Jun 06 '13 at 18:14
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    "KB2781514 solved the problem for me." http://stackoverflow.com/a/16838461/2472588 – Scott Page Jun 10 '13 at 22:13
  • Guys, you can quote that passage as much as you like, but it is not the _only_ passage governing off-topicness. That is, you cannot prove on-topicness by quoting just one passage from the FAQ. That's like saying you're allowed to steal because the ten commandments say "thou shalt not murder" and you're not murdering when you steal. That said, in my opinion this is on-topic. – Lightness Races in Orbit Aug 18 '13 at 01:39

6 Answers6

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I received the same message on Visual Studio 2012 Premium (on PC where Windows 7 re-installed in last month) - the suggested fix was "Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 (KB2781514)" which seems to have fixed it

www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36020

Colin Mackay
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John M
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  • I applied the update but still got the error message. It turned out that the update hadn't installed properly, and reapplying it worked. If the update just returns you to the system without giving an explicit "completed successfully" message, that could e worth a try. – digitig Oct 02 '13 at 10:20
  • If you 'Check for solutions online' when you get this error, a link to the fix suggested above (KB2781514) comes up (well it did for me anyway). – Michael Jul 05 '14 at 12:52
  • This is still the fix. Later versions need higher than windows 7 and also ie10. Also ensure you are getting the desktop version – The Humble Rat Mar 11 '16 at 14:19
  • Thanks a lot. When I installed MS SQL Server Management studio 2014, my VS 2012 started giving this problem. I reinstalled VS 2012 but no luck. Installing the update form this answer fixed the issue. – user3885927 Apr 01 '16 at 19:43
8

Install Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 solved my problem. No previous update needed for this one. Here's the descriptions of the update.

(I'm using Windows 8, installed all important updates for Windows, then tried repair Visual Studio in Programs and Features, problem still here until installed Update 2.)

Ian Cleveland
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3

I've been running VS2012 for about 2 weeks now since I clicked the "Don't show this window again" button. I haven't encountered any problems. For now I'm going to consider this an adequate solution.

sigil
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1

I've just installed VS2012 at home and came across the same problem. The 1st solution I found is that webdeploy doesn't work after Oct 2013 and I should install Web deploy V3.0.

Done that, no joy. I let Win7 search for compatibility solution on-line and it found an update patch (KB2781514) which did work.

This is the same solution as mentioned before by @John M.

Should've looked here first, just posting this again if someone comes across this again these days..

Thanks to all other users who helped with this thread.

bbbwex
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0

I had a similar problem with VS2012 awhile ago it was along the lines of:

"this solution has no errors and could potentially be damaged"

*yet still opened fine.

as far as fixing it went I performed a clean install of VS2012 and the error has not bugged me since in saying that I am probably out of date at this time and may find if I updated I would have the same issue.

Food for thought.

Otis Wright
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0

Even i had the same problem on Windows 7 with Visual studio 2012.

Installed Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 -KB2781514 and it fixed the issue.

Note: "Just clicking on Run program was also opening up the solution file without any issues in my case."

Jerin
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