Microsoft KB Archive/839548

Knowledge Base

"The application cannot start" error message when you start Visual Studio .NET on Windows Server 2003

Article ID: 839548

Article Last Modified on 5/18/2007

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APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional Edition
• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Architect
• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Developer
• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Academic Edition
• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2002 Professional Edition
• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2002 Enterprise Architect
• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2002 Enterprise Developer
• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2002 Academic Edition

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SYMPTOMS

If you install Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 on a computer that is running Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, upgrade the operating system to Microsoft Windows Server 2003, and then install Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2002, when you try to start either Visual Studio .NET 2002 or Visual Studio .NET 2003, you may receive the following error message:

The application cannot start

CAUSE

When you upgrade your operating system from Windows 2000 Server to Windows Server 2003, and then you install Visual Studio .NET 2002, some files are not registered. These files are not registered because Microsoft Windows Installer does not register files that already exist in the expected location on your computer. Because you installed Visual Studio .NET 2003 on your computer before you upgraded the operating system, these files already exist in the expected location on your computer.

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior, follow these steps:

1. Remove Visual Studio .NET 2002 from your computer.
2. Click Start, point to Control Panel, and then click Add or Remove Programs. The Add or Remove Programs dialog box appears.
3. Under Currently installed programs, click Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Edition 2003 - English, and then click Change/Remove. A Warning dialog box appears.
   

Note Edition is a placeholder for the edition of Visual Studio .NET 2003 that you have installed.

1. In the Warning dialog box, click Continue. The Visual Studio .NET Setup dialog box appears.
2. Click Visual Studio .NET. The Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Edition 2003 Setup - Maintenance Page dialog box appears.
3. Click Repair/Reinstall, and then follow the instructions to repair the existing installation of Visual Studio .NET 2003.
4. Click Done to close the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Edition 2003 Setup - Update Page dialog box.
5. Start Visual Studio .NET 2003.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to reproduce the behavior

To reproduce this behavior, follow these steps:

1. On a computer that is running Windows 2000 Server, install Visual Studio .NET 2003.
2. Upgrade the operating system to Windows Server 2003.
3. Install Visual Studio .NET 2002.
4. Try to start either Visual Studio .NET 2002 or Visual Studio .NET 2003.

REFERENCES

For more information about Visual Studio .NET 2003, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;vsnet11&x=12&y=15

For more information about Windows Installer, visit the following Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Web site:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa372866.aspx

For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

325379 How to upgrade Windows 2000 domain controllers to Windows Server 2003

312779 Visual Studio .NET Readme (Part 1)

Keywords: kbvs2005swept kbvs2005doesnotapply kbserver kbsetup kbdeployment kbappsetup kbprb KB839548

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