visual studio 2010: the application data folder for visual studio cannot be created

Question

I just installed visual studio 2010 on my win7 32 bit computer and i get the following message when I start it:

"the application data folder for visual studio cannot be created"

I had this same version of visual studio on my xp sp3 computer and it worked fine. I googled for various solutions but nothing worked. I tried to run:

"%programfiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" /setup

and to edit the [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders] AppData entry (but it was already okay). I tried to run as administrator.

Is there any other fix to this problem?

ps: after I installed visaul studio there was no desktop shortcut, the start menu folder was empty until I added premmisions for myself (I'm already admin...) and after that the start menu shortcit had no icon and didn't work so I had to run visual studion from the installation folders devenv.exe.

Solution 1

It sounds like Visual Studio is having problems creating the following folder

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio

Or one of the sub folders it creates for storing data (10.0 for example). I would first try accessing that directory location or it's parent and make sure that your account has the proper permissions to create folders in that location.

Solution 2

1. Go to your AppData folder (c:\Users\\AppData)
2. Right click, Security tab; click Advanced button.
3. If your username is not in the "Group or user names" list, click the Edit button and add it.
4. Give yourself full control.
5. Make sure your select "apply to all subfolders".
6. Restart Visual Studio.

Solution 3

Mine was the same issue but for VS 2013. On your C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local, find my Microsoft folder and Right-Click, properties, uncheck ReadOnly and make sure your name is under Security with full access. Then right-click on installer and try repair (or fresh install).

Comments

[tomfumb]

possibly related to the bizarre directory 'owner' issues that seem to litter Windows 7

[Yoav]

this folder existed: C:\Users\win7\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0 and I had no problem adding a folder myself

[JaredPar]

@user1018764 I would try renaming that folder, and trying again. Also see if %LOCALAPPDATA% points to a different location

[Yoav]

I renamed it, tried to run visual studio, got the same message, and a new folder appeared. %LOCALAPPDATA% points to C:\Users\win7\AppData\Local

[Yoav]

also the 10.0 folder contains a "vspdmc" file of lock type, when i opened it with notepad its content was: {BF082FD1-863D-490D-99BA-E47AE4D49706}

[JaredPar]

hmm, have you tried repairing the Visual Studio install? Something seems very amiss at this point.

[JaredPar]

@user1018764 yeah. It's either that or there is a directory permission issue somewhere which is affecting the program. My next move if this doesn't work would be to use the sysinternals tools to see exactly which folder the configuration is getting an error on

[Yoav]

Ok, the repair finished as a "success" but had the following error logs : [10/28/11,19:36:40] Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate - ENU: [2] WARNING:Warning 1946.Property 'System.AppUserModel.ID' for shortcut 'Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.lnk' could not be set. [10/28/11,19:36:40] Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate - ENU: [2] WARNING:Warning 1946.Property 'System.AppUserModel.ExcludeFromShowInNewInstall' for shortcut 'Microsoft Test Manager 2010.lnk' could not be set. I'm gonna restart now and try to run vs again

[Yoav]

sigh... nothing changed. So! how do i use the sysinternals tools?

[JaredPar]

@user1018764 you can use process monitor to see what files devenv.exe is trying to access during setup. technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645

[Yoav]

by what operation and result should i filter, cause it caught like 1700 events

[JaredPar]

@user1018764 filter should be for the devenv.exe process and simply look for file accesses. I would basically run the op, let it fail and then start looking backwards in the log for file access errors