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I have been working on a C# project, being built under a Windows 7 Ultimate VM, under Visual Studio 2017. Yesterday, when updating my tool set, I was notified that there was a .NET Framework upgrade available, version 4.6.1 (previously utilizing 4.5.2). After the upgrade was complete, with several issues along the way, that I had attributed to recent networking issues with VirtualBox and a handful of other, different VMs lately, I found that my VS C# solution now had nothing available to open in the solution. This was after selecting an option where VS asked whether or not to use the new .NET Framework version, or remain with the previous.

First I had tried the new version (twice), and looked for other solutions that might exist under different menu options, then proceeding to the option of utilizing the previous version. Both had the same effect. I wasn't able to resolve the problem by importing the repository back from GitHub, either.

Obviously, at this point, I'm trying to find a way to get my solution to open, so that I can continue working on my project. I'm in the process of restoring my system to a point before the upgrade, but I'd like something a little better than that, hopefully. I haven't been able to turn up anything on here, or with general googling about this problem, unfortunately. Not really sure where else to go with the research on this. Does anybody have any ideas (or resources for me to examine better) that may help out with this issue at all? Anything is greatly appreciated!

Damon Getsman
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  • 4.5.2 is certainly not new, hard to guess how that could happen. Sure, non-zero odds that it kills VS2017. Consider trying to repair the damage by installing 4.6.2 – Hans Passant Oct 10 '17 at 12:02
  • Did you install the regular Framework or the Developer Pack? Might be worth a shot to install it: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42637 – Lennart Oct 10 '17 at 12:08
  • My apologies, in an edit that I just submitted, I acknowledged an error in the version number that I had noted. The issue was in moving from 4.5.2 to 4.6.1, actually. Currently I have just found that restoring my windows installation to a date prior to this upgrade hasn't fixed anything, either... Also, I believe it was just the framework; I will examine further and attempt installing the developer pack, if possible. – Damon Getsman Oct 10 '17 at 12:20
  • @Lennart: that did the trick (installing the Developer Pack, that is). Thank you muchly for the suggestion! – Damon Getsman Oct 10 '17 at 13:04

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You updated the .NET Framework runtime, but to develop against it you also require the Developer Pack for the updated version which contains the reference assemblies and documentation for Visual Studio.

Here's a detailed description from Hans Passant what exactly the developer packs are for.

Lennart
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  • I understand what it did; it just very much surprises me that Visual Studio, created for development, would not have automatically added that... Thank you! – Damon Getsman Oct 10 '17 at 16:53