Duplicated files in VS 2008 Express

[Treecreeper]

I have two computers running XP. On one, Visual Studio 2008 Express (VB only) is working fine. On the other (also VB only), installation apparently proceeds without problems, but when I run VS it will not connect to the internet (for the Start page) and when I try to do anything in VB it returns this message:

Could not load type 'Microsoft.Visual.Studio.Shell.Interop.IVsRunningD ocumentTable2' from assembly 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.8.0', Version=8.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a

The error persists even after multiple uninstalls with Revo Uninstaller (from elsewhere on this forum). I have uninstalled everything to do with VS2008 (and VS2005, which was there previously), including the .NET Framework, and always rebooted before reinstalling, but I can't shift the error.

A google search showed someone has encountered this error before, although supposedly as a bug in VS2005. It is (says the poster) caused by a duplicate of 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.8.0' (version 8.0.0.0) in C:/Windows/Assembly, and the solution is to identify the older of the two and uninstall it. There is indeed a duplicate in the folder (one is dated 26/02/2005, the other 13/01/2010), in fact there are dozens of VS related files in C:/Windows/Assembly with key b03f5f7f11d50a3a and many with other keys. This is with VS and the .NET Framework supposedly uninstalled, but looking at the version numbers and dates I suspect these are a mixture of VS2005 and VS2008.

I tried to uninstall the older version of Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.8.0 by right click/uninstall, but it gave the message:

Assembly 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.8.0' could not be uninstalled because it is required by other applications.

I get the same message when I try to uninstall any of these VS remnants. What the 'other applications' are I have no idea.

Can anyone advise me where to proceed from here? Can I force the uninstallation of these 'assemblies'? I hope the solution isn't to reinstall XP!

n.b. I tried Safe Mode but it still wouldn't let me uninstall.

[unkamunka]

From the sound of it, the 2005 files won't accept renaming - say by adding an underscore to the end, but it might be worth a try.

You should be able to check with the "OK" machine to see if any of the 2005 files are in fact needed.

[Treecreeper]

Thanks Malcolm, I compared the two machines and found the good machine has this file plus a similar one, i.e.:

Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.8.0-----version 8.0.0.0-----Last Modified 14/01/2010 20:01:27
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.9.0-----version 9.0.0.0-----Last Modified 14/01/2010 20:03:43

My first thought was that the 8.0.0.0 file was a hangover from VS2005 and the 9.0.0.0 corresponded to the installed VS2008, but the timestamps for both correspond to the last time I used VS2008 (unless using VS2008 accesses remnants of VS2005...what mortal knows the mysteries of Microsoft).

As for renaming, right click only gives two options: Properties, and Uninstall (which doesn't work). I could try renaming by VBScript but are these things files? They are called 'assemblies' and they don't have file extensions, at least none that show in Explorer. I'm reluctant to mess about with VBScript when I don't know what I'm dealing with...a bit like trying to open the Windows Registry in Notepad.

[unkamunka]

.....The error persists even after multiple uninstalls with Revo Uninstaller (from elsewhere on this forum). I have uninstalled everything to do with VS2008 (and VS2005, which was there previously), including the .NET Framework, and always rebooted before reinstalling, but I can't shift the error....

AFAICR the C:\Windows\Assembly directory is not part of the default XP install. Have you tried removing it - after you've done the above *and* uninstalled any applications that you may have that require the .NET framework?

[Treecreeper]

AFAICR the C:\Windows\Assembly directory is not part of the default XP install. Have you tried removing it - after you've done the above *and* uninstalled any applications that you may have that require the .NET framework?

I looked at another computer with XP installed, one which had never had Visual Studio installed, or anything similar. This computer has C:\Windows\Assembly, containing files (I should say assemblies) with words like System, DirectX, Accessibility etc. in the names. The same names are also on my two computers. So it looks like C:\Windows\Assembly is part of the normal Windows XP setup and is not deletable.

[Treecreeper]

I may be getting somewhere on this...internet searching has revealed these assemblies together comprise the Windows Global Assembly Cache, or GAC. Normally, this can be deleted the Gacutil program in a Command window, something like

Gacutil /u assemblyname

If that doesn't work (says MSDN), these registry keys need to be deleted:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Ass emblies\Global (select assembly name)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\Installer\Asse mblies\Global (select assembly name)

However, somebody has written a utility called GacBrowser which both lists and facilitates uninstall of assemblies. I have just set it up and the list part works. But I am on the good computer. Somebody is playing Star Wars on the computer that needs cleaning up. When he has finished, I will try out GacBrowser and report back.