Microsoft visual C# 2008 compiler could not be created. Please re-install Visual Studio

Question

Any idea how to fix this error in Visual Studio? This error occurs when trying to create a new C# Console Application. I can create and build a C# Website, but Intellisense does not work. VB Applications work correctly. I tried upgrading to SP1 but that did not help. I would hate to reinstall Visual Studio and have the error crop up again.

"Microsoft visual C# 2008 compiler could not be created. Please re-install Visual Studio."

See also http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/04be49aa-de6b-4f45-9a27-86e3f214a0fe/project-could-not-be-opened-because-microsoft-visual-c-2008-compiler-could-not-be-created-, scroll down to Alex Burtsev's comment made at Saturday, July 05, 2008. It is the same as Ashish's answer http://stackoverflow.com/a/13639375/911550, and a lot of users thereafter report that worked for them. Also, one user there suggests to install Silverlight tool for vs2008 sp1. — parvus, Jun 05 '14 at 12:59
Please try this.It worked for me. http://stackoverflow.com/a/22227869/6473684 — Arsen Ablaev, Apr 10 '17 at 12:40

James Lawruk · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-30T15:26:28.187

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In the command prompt, I ran:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe /resetsettings

Everything works fine now! This saved me a reinstall.

edited Nov 30 '12 at 15:26

answered Apr 21 '09 at 17:51

James Lawruk

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Still valid for `VisualStudio 2015 CTP 6` (Visual Studio 14 folder) – JP Hellemons Apr 16 '15 at 11:41
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Just validated for Visual Studio 2015 RTM. Still works. – Bryan Crosby Aug 03 '15 at 14:50
@JPHellemons Have you solve your problem, if yes please share solution with me ? – Ajay Sharma Jan 29 '16 at 10:37
Their is no devenv.exe at such path – Ajay Sharma Jan 29 '16 at 10:38
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Lol @AjaySharma I did mark this as accepted answer, so yes this did solve it. The path is different per visual studio version. So vs2008 is in visual studio 9. 2015 is (for me on a x64 system) found here: `"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe"` – JP Hellemons Jan 29 '16 at 10:43
@JPHellemons I found that path and also run that but unfortunately it not works for me. Now I am uninstall and re-install VS 2015. Let's see what happens – Ajay Sharma Jan 29 '16 at 12:42

score 9 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 20 '09 at 08:30

9

I tried "resetsettings" and repairing the installation form add/remove programs, both didn't work.
Solved the issue by deleting the following registry key.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio

Visual studio will ask you to select the language preference when you open it again. (Make sure that you delete the key from HKCU and not from HKLM)

answered Oct 20 '09 at 08:30

Nimesh Madhavan

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/resetsettings did work for the original poster. If it didn't work for you, then it means you have a different problem with the same symptom. – John Saunders Oct 20 '09 at 08:53

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 30 '12 at 15:28

5

I reinstalled VS2008 but problem persisted.Then upon running

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe /ResetSkipPkgs

my problem was resolved.

edited Nov 30 '12 at 15:28

James Lawruk

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answered Nov 30 '12 at 05:08

Ashish

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Not sure, I added a +1 to compensate. – James Lawruk Nov 30 '12 at 15:27
After reinstall not works, I find this solution works for me. – wangf Dec 03 '15 at 06:29
Not working. still my project is unload and showing message to reinstall visual studio – Ajay Sharma Jan 29 '16 at 10:44

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 21 '14 at 10:33

None of the above solutions did the trick for me. Maybe it's because we are working with TFS 2010?

What solved the problem for me was reinstalling KB974558

Maybe it was the combination of doing all that registry stuff mentioned above and reapplying the patch - who knows?

Although this thread is a little bit outdated there may be some other guys out there who have to stay with VS 2008 because they have to keep Compact Framework applications alive

score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Jan 15 '12 at 15:32

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I use deven.exe /ResetSkipPkgs and Solve the problem I guess it's like delete the keys like it sais at http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/Vsexpressinstall/thread/04be49aa-de6b-4f45-9a27-86e3f214a0fe

edited Jan 15 '12 at 15:32

answered Sep 29 '10 at 15:49

allende

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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 15 '10 at 14:55

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I was not able to vote, but restart and resetting the settings did not work for me. But deleting HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0 did work for me. Thank you NimsDotNet, sadly I could not vote for that answer for some reason.

answered Sep 15 '10 at 14:55

Kharina Tigerfish

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Bhoopathi Reddy · Answer 7 · 2016-08-05T14:53:04.683

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Run this in the command prompt of visual studio 2008 otherwise, go to this path and run devenv.exe /resetsettings

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe /resetsettings

and visual studio will be restarted.

if the problem persists try repairing the file from control panel and this works

Thank You

edited Aug 05 '16 at 14:53

answered Aug 03 '16 at 11:52

Bhoopathi Reddy

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score -1 · Answer 8 · answered Apr 20 '09 at 16:39

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Did you try reinstalling Visual Studio like you were told to do?

answered Apr 20 '09 at 16:39

John Saunders

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No, he might have tried to reinstall it and failed. That could be why he's trying to work around a problem the solution of which he's been told already. – John Saunders Apr 20 '09 at 16:59
How do you know it doesn't solve the issue, and why the downvote? – John Saunders Oct 20 '09 at 08:50

Microsoft visual C# 2008 compiler could not be created. Please re-install Visual Studio

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