Visual Studio setup problem - A problem has been encountered while loading the setup components Canceling setup

Question

I ve had a serious issue with my Visual Studio 2008 setup  I receive the ever-so-useful error  A problem has been encountered while loading the setup components  Canceling setup   whenever I try to uninstall  reinstall or repair Visual Studio 2008  team system version   If I can t resolve this issue I have no choice but to completely wipe my computer and start again which will take all day long  I ve recently received very strange errors when trying to build projects regarding components running out of memory  despite having  2gb physical memory free at the time  which has rendered my current VS install useless   Note I installed VS2005 shell version using the vs setup msi file in the SQL Server folder after I had installed VS2008  in order to gain access to the SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services designer in Business Intelligence Development Studio  this is inexplicably unavailable in VS2008    Does anyone have any solutions to this problem   P S   I know this isn t directly related to programming  however I feel this is appropriate to SO as it is directly related to my ability to program at all   Note  A colleague found a solution to this problem  hopefully this should help others with this problem

User · Answer

Sure enough  for me  it was the hotfixes  In Add Remove Programs  check the  Show Updates  box  and remove ALL of the Hotfixes associated with your version of VS2008  Then try the  Change Remove  button - it should now proceed without a hitch   Well  it did for me  anyway     -

User · Answer

I had the same error message  For me it was happening because I was trying to run the installer from the DVD rather than running the installer from Add Remove programs

User · Answer

Windows 7 suggested to  Uninstall using recommended settings  after hitting OK in the error message  It solved the problem

User · Answer

Uninstall hotfixes installed in related to vs2008 and then try again   It worked for me and hopefully it will for you as well   Thanks  Zelalem

User · Answer

You should look for the MSI setup logs in the temp directory of your system  They will contain detailed inforamtion about why the setup failed  I had a similar installation problem with Visual Studio 2008 which I was able to resolve by studying the logs

User · Answer

A colleague found this MS auto-uninstall tool which has successfully uninstalled VS2008 for me and saved me hours of work    Hopefully this might be useful to others  Doesn t speak highly of MS s faith in their usual VS maintenance tools that they have to provide this as well

User · Answer

Thanks  riaraos  uninstalling KB952241 was the solution for me  too  Before doing that I tried to run the installer from  Programs and Features  and from the installation DVD without success  I did not want to completely remove the VS 2008 installation but only add a few components   Notes on my system   Windows 7 Beta 1 Visual Studio 2008 SP1

User · Answer

In my case  uninstalling from Add amp Remove Programs didn t work   Instead  the problem was due to a recently hotfix installed through automatic updates   The hotfix to VS 2008  in my case  has the number KB952241  so I uninstalled it using Add Remove Programs checking on the show updates option   After it was unistalled the problem was gone

User · Answer

I had the same error message  For me it was happening because I was trying to run the installer from the DVD rather than running the installer from Add Remove programs

User · Answer

I have Visual Studio Team System 2008 Development Edition  and had to remove all updates and Hotfixes     Update KB972221 Hotfix KB973674 Hotfix KB971091   Reboot  then the following Hotfix appeared  which I then removed as per  riaraos  answer    Hotfix KB952241   Before the Change Remove would work   Hope that helps someone else

User · Answer

In my case  installing visual studio SP1 unbroke the uninstall repair functionality

User · Answer

Remove the following hot fixes and updates   Update KB972221 Hotfix KB973674 Hotfix KB971091   Restart the PC and try to uninstall now  This worked for me without problems

User · Answer

I encountered the same problem and found a very easy solution Go to the following Link  http   msdn microsoft com en-us vs2008 bb968856 aspx  and run VS AutoUninstall tool  This will automatically remove all the components of VS 2008   Cheers

User · Answer

Okay I had the same issues first my VS2008 was acting up so i tried to uninstall it and it didn t work   I read online that using an AutoUninstall by MS will do the trick it did just that   but left a lot of nasty files behind    So i used  Windows Install Clean Up  and cleaned up more stuff that had to do with VS   then went back into Add and remove in control panel Removed the KB952241    then opened up Ccleaner and scanned the registry found a lot of left behind crap from VB2008 removed all that once that was done    I went ahead and launch the installed back from the CD again and BAM its working   I did all this without having to restart my PC    Hope this helps people who are stuck  like i was

User · Answer

Microsoft itself posted a KB article about this  and that article has a service pack that they claim fixes the problem   See below   http   support microsoft com kb 959417   It took a while for the associated update to install itself  but once it did  I was able to run the Visual Studio setup successfully from the Add Remove Programs control panel

User · Answer

I think this sort of question is entirely appropriate to the forum  especially if an easy solution can be found  as would save others hours of pain   Unfortunately I dont have the solution  but would suggest  if you haven t already    Run FileMon to see if the installer is looking for specific files which are no longer there - this may give some clues   Painful  but try uninstalling other apps based upon the VS shell  eg 2005  first

User · Answer

Solution to this is   http   www dotnetzone gr cs forums 48758 ShowThread aspx 48758

[visual-studio] Visual Studio setup problem - 'A problem has been encountered while loading the setup components. Canceling setup.'

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