Develop Reference

Unable to run a MonoGame project on a clean installation of Visual Studio and MonoGame

I recently got a new computer, and finally got around to installing MonoGame, as I worked with it a few months back on my old computer, and primarily use Unity for my game development when not working on 2D games. Their website says they have CLI templates that work with Rider, but I figured it would be best to get it installed with Visual Studio first. Following the exact steps listed on the MonoGame website, I got everything installed that I needed, and started a project from one of the Visual Studio MonoGame templates. Upon opening the project, and everything finishing loading, I am greeted to this miserable sight. I also had an error in the console relating to MonoGame, with the error code MSB3073. From what research I did, I found that it either had to do with my username having a space in it (it clearly does not, so that was out of the picture), or it had to do with using the Visual Studio templates, and I would simply need to create the project from the CLI templates, as seen here. However, creating a new project from the CLI templates does not change anything. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling dotnet, I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Visual Studio. I have, of course, powered my computer off and back on multiple times. Even trying to open the project in Rider after installing the proper MonoGame packages in the program has the same exact errors. But when I zipped the project up and sent it to a friend who works with MonoGame, he was able to run the project with no issues, so clearly it has something to do with my setup.
I have also cleaned my nuget cache, cleared my project temp folders, and cleared the visual studio cache. Eventually, the Microsoft dependencies stop having issues when I simply close and open the project again, but every time I open the project in Visual Studio, I get the same error in the console, and it prevents me from running/building the project.
Hoping someone on here will know what to do with the info I've given, as I'm completely out of ideas!

So I figured it out. I'm not very experienced with the command line, but I managed to find a very nice tutorial by someone who wanted to make games with MonoGame using only the command line. In it, I was able to attempt to build the project from the CLI, and it gave me an error message unlike what was in Visual Studio. It said that MonoGame only works on a 64bit OS, but I'm on a 64bit OS. So I went to look at what version of dotnet was being used, and sure enough, it was the 32 bit version! It took a while to figure out how to uninstall it, and how to use the dotnet-core-uninstaller tool in the command line. Then all I had to do was remove the Environment Variable in the System category for the Path variable that referenced the Program Files (x86) directory of dotnet.
Hopefully if anybody else comes across this issue, they'll find this post, as none of the others seemed to fully explain how to do anything that needed to be done to fix the problem :)

How do I chase dependency errors in nugets in Visual Studio 2019?

I am getting the error: "Could not find SDK "Microsoft.VCLibs, Version=14.0" whenever I attempt to build the default "Blank App (Universal Windows)" app.
I know I have compiled UWP apps before, and is potentially a consequence of recently trying the VS2019 preview (now removed)
I've tried uninstalling/reinstalling VS2019, VS2017, even installed 2015 and the blank UWP apps in each all come up with the same error.
I've tried uninstalling/reinstalling/repairing Windows 10 SDK's.
I've tried various versions of the Microsoft.NETCore.UniversalWindowsPlatform to no avail. (The default is v6.2.10).
Can anyone explain how I can logically chase this error? I'm assuming that it is failing to build the UniversalWindowsPlatform nuget - is this correct? What is supposed to be installing the vclibs extension? How can I see what is preventing it from being installed?

No amount of repairing/installing VS2019, VS2017 or even VS2015, adding or removing options, (re)installing SDKs, (re)installing Visual C++ Runtime libraries made any difference.
what did eventually work was installing VS2019 on a new PC and then copying its entire "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Kits\10\ExtensionSDKs directory across.
If installing VS2019 installs this directory, I'm not sure why it doesn't fix it as part of reinstalling and/or repairing it!! An opportunity for improvement in VS2019 repair perhaps?
Big thankyou to #NicoZhu-MSFT for all of your help!!

Visual studio with Xamarin SDK license agreement

Right now I hate visual studio.
I install Visual Studio 2019, install Xamarin on it. Create a blank project. Window pops up asking me to accept the SDK license agreement; I do. VS status bar stuck at "Waiting for license agreement".
Fine, I'll wait. 45 min later, nothing changes. I go manually through an elevated CMD and run sdkmanager.bat --licenses and accept all of them. Restart visual studio. Waiting for license agreement. Try to open SDK Manager, there was an error trying to load, please retry. Try to open up the Android Device Manager... "Android device manager has stopped working"; sure, I'll bite and debug, maybe I forgot to install something. Yeah, argument exception, oldValue cannot be length 0.
Wait what?... Okay, I'll manually install android SDK; I do so, I change my route in VS. "This project requires an SDK".
Okay, f it, maybe Visual studio 2019 ain't working yet with Xamarin. Installed 2017; fire it up, create a project, all fine and dandy, "We're installing an SDK, this may take a few minutes. For more info check the output in the console window"
One hour later, there is no progress bar, there is NO CONSOLE WINDOW anymore in visual studio (thanks microsoft!) and the output window has no output (how ironic).
I'm out of ideas. Frustrated as ****. Any ideas?

About Setting up the Android SDK for Xamarin.Android , you can follow this to start the SDK Manager in Visual Studio, click Tools > Android > Android SDK Manager:
When selecting platform sdk to install or update , a dialog may be shown with the message, The following package requires that you accept its license terms before installing:
If the process not continuing after a while , you need to check the network whehter supports the SDK updated . Sometimes ,the gateway of network or firewall will afftet this .

Visual Studio 2019 Installer doesn't start

I'm using Windows 10 ver. 1909. Installer hangs or does nothing. No feedback.

I had exactly this problem. Same version of Windows 10. I tried both vs_community.exe and vs_professional.exe. On a Microsoft Surface Pro 4. The installer launches, a brief unpacking screen appears, that vanishes, and you're left with the task manager showing the installer but no user interface. I tried numerous different suggestions from Googling as well as the Collect.exe tool. None of that helped. Someone had a similar problem that hinted that a display could cause the problem. My Surface had Duet installed, which allows you to use an iPad as a second monitor. Uninstalling that allowed Visual Studio to install normally. Apparently the Visual Studio installer is finicky about displays so if you have any unusual display drivers, or screen sharing utilities, they should be removed to allow installing. I suspect that the driver or utility could be put back after installation.

In my case, the issue was that I have downloaded and launched the installer to a user folder that contains non-English characters. Moving the installer to another folder fixed the issue. I´ve diagnosed the issue by looking into an installer log file in C:\Users<username>\AppData\Local\Temp\dd_vs_professional__143315035.1628536728_decompression_log.txt.

At first you need to download this tool Event Collect for visual studio, open your CMD as administrator,then run Collect.exe , after that you need to run your visual studio installer in the event of an error you will find and file named C:\Users{username}\AppData\Local\Temp\VSSetupEvents.txt that you can check to see the error messages.
For more details you can check documentation .

My case is very embarrassing for Microsoft. I downloaded Visual Studio Setup and started it right away from browser. It was opened and then immediately closed. Nothing I could read on the Internet about this problem was not helping. Then I did one very simple thing. Moved setup from original location: C:\Users(user name)\Downloads, to c:\Temp -> worked like a charm. The thing is that my user name contains international characters (plus containing a space). All in all 21. century, full unicode support everywhere, but not in windows. Really embarrassing.

Visual Studio 2019 Installer doesn't start
I lost time about something I shouldn't have, I couldn't install vscode studio 2019 (I've installed it on multiple machines before).
I don't know exactly why, observed there might be something in my folder blocking it, I just moved it to a new folder and I could install. Good luck and don't make the same mistake as me

Unable to activate windows store app the app didn't start

First of all I would like to say that I already tried all the solutions I could find on the internet, including Unable to Activate Windows Store App
I recently upgraded my Windows 7 machine to Windows 8.1 to be capable of developing Windows Store apps using Visual Studio 2013. When I open a blank project (Windows Store -> Blank App) and run it I get this error:
Unable to activate Windows Store app 'Package Name'. The App1.exe
process started, but the activation request failed with error 'The app
didn't start'.
See help for advice on troubleshooting the issue.
I already tried:
Reinstalling Windows (Clean install)
Reinstalling Visual Studio 2013
Installing Visual Studio 2012 (same error)
Deleting "bin" and "obj" folder
Cleaning the solution
Uninstalling the app from start menu
Creating a new project
Acquiring the license multiple times (the license is valid)
Making sure that app.config doesn't exist
Investigating the Windows Event Log which says
Activation of the app 'Package Name' for the Windows.Launch contract failed with error: The app didn't start..
but found nothing useful
Adding a new Windows user
Run everything as administrator
and at last, changing the desktop background :)
None of this did bring a solution. Does anyone have an idea what else could be the reason for this error?
Thank you.

I found a solution. The problem was that the drive I was working on was encrypted (TrueCrypt). Moving the output folder to an unencrypted drive solved the problem.

If switching from x86 to x64, make sure your Project Properties Platform Target and Configuration Platform are BOTH set to X64.Hint you need to change to x64 debugging in the Build menu/Configuration Manager dialog to get the Configuration Platform in Project Properties to update.
This caused the activation error problem to be resolved for me
HTH
Robert

I had the same Error and tried after loading the SQLite Package for WP 8.1 some things above:
not working:
Clean and Rebuild
Restart Computer/Phone
what did the deal (for me)
I put Platform Target under Properties -> Build to ARM instead of x86
Hopefully this might help somebody else facing this ridiculously informative Errormessage.

I had the same problem with Visual Studio Community 2015 while trying to debug an Blank App (Universal Windows) using Visual C#.
Visual Studio was installed on Disk C:(SSD), and Project files were placed on D:(HDD). I´ve created a Folder on C: Drive and placed my test project there.
After that Error messages gone.

If you are receiving this error and are developing for Microsoft Hololens:
You are trying to build to a device that is asleep. To wake your device, tap on the button on the back (on/off button).
Good luck!

I've tried all the solutions found on the net and none applied to my case, not even this one.
The only way I could make it work was changing the Package Name in the appxmanifest.
This made me think there must be some leftovers somewhere around with the old package name, that are either corrupted or inaccessible because of some permissions issues.
It might be just a coincidence but the problem appeared twice after I tried using the app verifier (appverif.exe)
Now I reassociated my app to a store app package and things seem to continue working...

In my solution, I have a non-UWP project (Multiplatform development) that builds with a different Solution Platform.
I was attempting to run the UWP project in Debug, but as the wrong Solution Platform.
Edit:
I also get this when I build my project for Any-CPU, instead of x64.

Ensure that ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES has "read" permissions on C:\Windows.
My organization's group policy likes to strip all permissions from C:\Windows, including the ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES group . By adding it back in and setting Read & execute, List folder contents, and Read, I'm able to run the app from Visual Studio without any problems.
See What to do if your Windows 8 Modern App fails to start for more tips, including this one.

I had the same problem in Visual Studio 2015 Update 3, Windows 10 Build 10586.494.
The error came up when trying to start any UWP app that I compiled without .NET Native Toolchain. With Native Toolchain enabled, the apps would start.
Installing a new (blank) app manually fixed the error for me:
Start VS 2015
File > New > Project.
Blank App (Universal Windows) Visual C#. OK.
Make sure to be in Debug config
Right click on Project > Store > Create App Packages
No. Next.
Select Debug for all architectures.
Create
When packaging is finished, open Explorer to the project path / AppPackages / [...]_Debug_Test
Right-click on Add-AppDevPackage.ps1 > Run with PowerShell
Follow the instructions
Start the installed app from Start Menu

I had the same problem a couple of weeks ago. A simple restart helped me out.
Also tried this one?: http://irisclasson.com/2012/11/04/problem-unable-to-activate-windows-store-app-the-app1-exe-process-started-but-the-activation-request-failed-with-error-the-app-didnt-start/
Hope its usefull to you

I managed to fix the same problem by rebuilding the solution. (In Vis Studio 2012)

I have tried many solutions and nothing worked. At the end what worked for me was to change the startup project to windows phone 8.1 and after it runs OK I changed it back to windows 8.1 and it runs OK. It works for me as I am making a universal app. Hope it helps anyone else.

I had the same issue with a Windows Store App after moving some files around. I ended up opening an older file (as Admin) to see if it would run and found that it did. I then returned to the file that would not and it ran also. I believe opening the older file (as Admin) reset the paths for development and the permissions. Hope this helps.

Same problem - moved my project from the TrueCrypt Partition and all was fine.

I had a similar issue, solved by choosing a new publisher certificate. And of course restarting Windows

I had same issue. Selecting proper Platform solved my problem. i.e. My application was selected to run under x86 platform, while my OS & SDK supports x64. Selecting x64 solved my problem.

I had the same problem on a UWP app when creating a package for Testing, but not when runing directly from Visual Studio 2017.
The solution was to select only the architecture that I am using to Debug the App, Instead of all options (x86, x64, ARM).
Here is the option choosed on Visual Studio

There are can be a couple of things that might be causing this problem.
Here are the trouble shooting steps that helped me out:
Step 1 : Check to see if running visual studio in the elevated mode (Run as an Administrator) helped solve the problem. (Sometimes, your folder permissions might get mangled due to various softwares that you might have install)
Step 2 : Delete all the bin and obj folders in your project and rebuild the projects in your solution manually.
Step 3 : Do a quick check of your System Type (x64 or x86 etc) and see if your project is targeted for the same.
Here is how to do know your system type: Win + R > cmd > systeminfo
If it says x64, then make sure to select the Solution Platforms (In visual studios top action bar) as x64 or so forth depending on your architecture.
Thats all I did to solve my problem.

I had unticked an option while trying to get debugging working prior to this error, the fix for me was to re-check the "Compile with .NET Native tool chain"

A rather niche situation and solution...
I was remote debugging a UWP app for a while successfully. After some reworking, I ran into this issue. In the main app project I had set the windows version compatibility accordingly (I am running the app on a Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2019 device) but had forgotten to match those windows target and minimum versions for the Library Project that was in my solution.
After cleaning and re-deploying the solution (first uninstalling the app from the remote device), the problem went away.