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I have been happily editing SSIS packages on my PC for the last several years (I mean with the same installed OS and software) until recently when the "Edit Script..." button on the Script Task Editor dialog box stopped working. It would just do nothing when I clicked that button. I was using Visual Studio 2017 but I had VS 2015, 2013, and 2010 install on the same machine. I had multiple versions of sql server data tool installed as well (and multiple versions of VSTA and supporting libraries installed). I have tried many things to get this to work with no success so I decided to uninstall all versions of Sql Server Data Tools and all versions of Visual Studio Tools for Applications (to avoid any issues I may have introduced by all the reinstallations of components I did while trying to fix this) and then install Visual Studio 2019 with the "Data And Storage Processing" workload.

I assumed a fresh install would work but it did not. I installed the SSIS extension in VS 2019 and created a new SSIS project. When I add a script task and open it up to edit it and then click on the "Edit Script..." button, I get the following error:

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Cannot show Visual Studio 2015 Tools for Applications editor. (Microsoft Visual Studio)

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Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications, Version=16.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified. (mscorlib)

Program Location:

Server stack trace: at Microsoft.SqlServer.IntegrationServices.VSTA.VstaHelper.<>c__DisplayClass4.b__3() at System.Runtime.Remoting.Messaging.StackBuilderSink._PrivateProcessMessage(IntPtr md, Object[] args, Object server, Object[]& outArgs) at System.Runtime.Remoting.Messaging.StackBuilderSink.AsyncProcessMessage(IMessage msg, IMessageSink replySink)

Exception rethrown at [0]: at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.EndInvokeHelper(Message reqMsg, Boolean bProxyCase) at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RemotingProxy.Invoke(Object NotUsed, MessageData& msgData) at System.Func1.EndInvoke(IAsyncResult result) at Microsoft.SqlServer.IntegrationServices.VSTA.MtaExecution.RunFunc[TResult](Func1 function) at Microsoft.SqlServer.IntegrationServices.VSTA.VstaHelper.LoadNewProject(String templatePath, String templateName, String projectName) at Microsoft.SqlServer.Dts.Tasks.ScriptTask.ScriptTaskUI.ShowIDE()

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Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

Initially I think the version numbers it reported were different from what is listed in this error message but I have since tried installing multiple versions of VSTA from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=58316&WT.mc_id=DX_MVP4025064 and https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=56046

I don't remember installing any new software recently on this PC so I am confused as to why this started failing out of the blue and why a fresh installation has the same problem.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this (and if so, do you know why it happened)? Does anyone have some suggestions about how I should proceed to get productive again as quickly as possible? Any help would be much appreciated, thank you.

David
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1 Answers1

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It was a bug introduced to VS2019 and its SSIS extension.

It was recently resolved.

Please make sure that you have the following installed:

  • VS2019, v.16.9.*
  • SQL Server Integration Services Projects, v.3.13.1

Download link: SQL Server Integration Services Projects

Important excerpt:

Sometimes this product or Visual Studio Tools for Applications 2019 may be somehow deleted during VS instance upgrade. If your existing SSIS projects cannot be loaded, please try to repair this product via control panel. If VS doesn't pop up when clicking on "Edit Script", please try to repair VSTA 2019 via control panel.

Yitzhak Khabinsky
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  • Thank you for helping me out with this. I actually already had this those versions installed. The description of this bug seems like it might have to do with some of the same components but the behavior is different from what I am experiencing (I cannot view the code to edit at all). Maybe they introduced a new bug with the fix for that bug. – David May 24 '21 at 21:25
  • @David, I added an excerpt to the answer. Please try it. – Yitzhak Khabinsky May 24 '21 at 21:32
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    Thank you Yitzhak. I think you have figured out what the original problem was. Beyond that, I realized that I had installed the VSTA 2019 sdk (which apparently does not contain the runtime binaries) because it was the first thing that came up when I googled "VSTA Installer". I installed this and it fixed the issue: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=58317 – David May 25 '21 at 01:11
  • @David. Glad to hear that the issue is resolved. – Yitzhak Khabinsky May 25 '21 at 01:12