Error while trying to run project Unable to start program Cannot find the file specified

Question

This project was working fine  then I restarted my computer to install a new GPU  and now it is producing the following error when I try to run it   Error while trying to run project  Unable to start program    E  Workspace         exe   Cannot find the file specified    I have confirmed that the file mentioned does exist at the path specified by the error message   I have tried to  Clean Solution  and  Rebuild Solution    Navigating to the executable file manually and running it works  The error above is produced when I press the  Run  button in VS2010   Does anyone know why this might be happening

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I encountered a similar problem  And I found the solution to be totally unrelated to the error  The trick was renaming the assembly name  Solution  VS 2013 -  Project properties -  Application tab -  AssemblyName property changed to new name  lt  25 chars

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I found a related thread   Debugging Visual Studio 2010 IE 8 - Unable to start program - Element not found   Here the best suggested answer was    Tools  gt  Internet Options  gt  Advanced Under the Browsing Section   then uncheck the    Disable Script Debugging  Internet Explorer

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The only way that I was able to get over this  reinstall wasn t an option  was to set the project properties- web- start action-  don t open a page  wait for a request from an external application    BTW  I think that at some point this started because of a mod that I made to machine config     And no  I don t remember what it was  It does seem to be this very apocalyptic bug where once you get it never goes away    So if you found this page from Google  you should know that you are doomed

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I had this issue on VS2008  I removed the  suo   ncb  and user project file  then restarted the solution and it fixed the problem for me

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In case of Windows applications  the error is solved changing the running project properties    Right click on current running project  select Properties Debug -  Check Enable unmanaged code debugging and press save button in menu    This configuration is not saved to  CurrentProject  csproj  or  CurrentProject  vbproj    It is saved to    CurrentProject  csproj user  or  CurrentProject  vbproj user   If you use a code repository  usually this file is not saved undo version control

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Reset the diagnostics and the static analysis under the  for example  Properties -  FORTRAN -  diagnostics  Particular be careful the  Level of Static Security Analysis  and set it none  Good luck

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I personally have this issue in Visual 2012 with x64 applications when I check the option  Managed C   Compatibility Mode  of Debugging- gt General options of Tools- gt Options menu     Unchecking this option fixes the problem

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I ve tried deleting  suo   ncb   sdf  rebuild etc  Nothing helped  The message was      Unable to start program    C  Users some user Downloads project name   Debug fil name exe    The system cannot find the file specified    The problem was mismatched file name and wrong path to that file  1  So went to Project- Properties- Linker- General-  and on the right pane in  Output file  changed the name from  fil name exe  to  file name exe  The file name exe was in deeper folder like -   Debug crv  2  Also did Project- Properties- Configuration Properties-  and on the right pane in  Output Directory  edited    Debug   to    Debug crv

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I had the same problem  The cause for me was that the Command option in Configuration Properties   Debugging had been reset to its default value

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I encountered this error when    was added by mistake to my command line arguments when altering properties for  All Configurations    Removing them from RightClickProject- Properties- Configuration Properties- Debugging- Command Arguments allowed it to run in the debugger again

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I think that VS is no longer able to resolve the path for some reason   You can try going to the  Project Properties  dialog  select the  Debug  tab  select  Start external program  on the  Start Action  group and type the full path to the executable

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For me it was the virus scanner not liking the fact I have in my exe filename multiple periods   i e  project class console exe  lt - won t run  console exe  lt - will run  Hope it helps

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I had a similar problem  but none of the solutions listed here helped  My problem was that my solution has multiple projects and the wrong one was selected as the StartUp Project  once I changed that  it worked

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From the top menu  Build  -   Rebuild Solution   the  exe file was somehow deleted or corrupted  the  Rebuild Solution will create a new one

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I just re-ran into the same issue  Console App  Visual Studio 2013  64 bit OS   The project s settings was set to  Any CPU   I created a new configuration for x86 and VS was happy    In Your Solution Explorer  Right Click your solution   sln   choose  Configuration Manager  Active Solution Platform  If it s saying  Any CPU   click the drop down arrow and choose    In the  Type or select the new platform   enter  x86  Now  make sure that the  Active solution platform  is set to x86 Run  F5

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I had similar problem while using Silverlight web project     I got resolved issue by setting startup page  In silverlight  aspx is the startup page    In project browser right click your startup page and set it    see here my screen shot

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in my case we solved from project debugging settings like

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Deleting and restoring the entire solution from the repository resolved the issue for me  I didn t find this solution listed in any of the other answers  so thought it might help someone

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For me  it was    the AntiVirus  Kaspersky Endpoint security 10  It seems that the frequent compilations and the changing of the exe  caused it to block the file

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I am only posting this because I had a specific issue with the command line arguments I was passing in   Being inexperienced with the command line I was using   lt   and     in my arguments and it was redirecting the file on me   Hope this helps someone

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Using the repair tool in the VS Management fixed everything    I e  right click Visual Studio 2010 and select Change Remove from the Uninstall Programs tool in the Windows Control Panel  and click Repair in the Visual Studio Management window when it loads

[visual-studio-2010] Error while trying to run project: Unable to start program. Cannot find the file specified

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