I have two projects, ProjectA and ProjectB. ProjectB is a console application, which depends on ProjectA. Yesterday, everything was working fine, but suddenly today when I run ProjectB I get this:
BadImageFormatException was unhandled:
Could not load file or assembly 'ProjectA, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' or one of its dependencies. An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format.
Both are just regular projects, with no dependencies on any other non-.Net projects. Both are fully .Net - there is no native code, and no P/Invoke. I have other projects which depend on ProjectA and still work just fine.
Things I have tried:
Make sure both projects are set to "Any CPU," with the build checkbox checked. They are.
Make sure both projects are for the same Target Framework (.Net 4.0 Client Profile).
Under ProjectB --> References --> ProjectA --> Properties, make sure "Copy Local" is set to "True" _ (I verified that ProjectA.dll is being copied correctly)
Clean/Rebuild the solution. I even tried manually deleting the /bin and /obj folders in both projects.
Restart Visual Studio. Restart my computer.
Check out an entirely new copy of the repository.
But I still get the same error. I have no idea what I did to cause this, nor how to fix it. Any ideas?
I am pretty sure you're having a 32-bit / 64-bit conflict. It sounds like your main project might be set to 32-bit while the class its referencing is set to 64-bit. Try looking at this SO question and this one too. Between the two of them, you should be able to figure out your problem.
Might be you are facing the problem with your website after deploying on server.
Then you need to adjust your application pool to Enable 32-Bit Applications.
Steps
Open IIS Manager
Click on Application Pools
Select whatever application pool you are using
From right pane, click Advanced Settings...
Set Enable 32-Bit Applications to True
I just had this error message running IIS Express in Visual Studio 2015. In my case I needed to be running the 64 bit version of IIS Express:
Tools → Options → Projects and Solutions → Web Projects
Check the box
that says "Use the 64 bit version of IIS Express for web sites and
projects".
Screenshot:
I had this same problem. I had set Project A's "Platform Target" ("Project A"(Right Click)->Properties->Build->"Platform Target") to x86 but kept Project B's at "Any CPU". Setting Project B's to "x86" fixed this.
I had this problem running unit tests (xunit) in Visual Studio 2015 and came across the following fix:
Menu Bar -> Test -> Test Settings -> Default Processor Architecture -> X64
You may need to change the Appication Pool setting "Enable 32bit Applications" to TRUE in IIS7 if you have at least 1 32bit dll\exe in your project.
First of all I got this in VS2017 with an old project I needed to make a tiny change to and upraded all the projects to framework 4.7.
Several others have mentioned selecting Any CPU can fix this issue.
There's a couple places you need to do it, and it might not just be as simple as selecting from the dropdown. This fixed it for me:
1) You need to do it both here:
2) And also in Configuration Manager (right click on solution)
But what if it isn't there???
Then click New and choose these settings: (thanks #RckLN)
I had the same issue with multiple projects in the same solution, i ended up setting all of the target frameworks to .NET Framework 4 and x86 for the target CPU and it finally successfully compiled.
None of these solutions worked for me - but by deleting the contents of bin and obj folders everything was cool again.
The following solved the issue for me, uncheck 'Prefer
32-bit' :
For the newer version of visual studio (v16.10 for this answer), it can be fixed by manually changing the solution platform. For me it worked after changing from "Any CPU" to "x86".
Click on solutions platform dropdown, the one in which any CPU is appearing in image below.
Go to configuration manager.
Click on new and add platform x86 or x64 (32 or 64 bits) based on what is working for you.
Restart the project.
I also had this problem. As mention before the problem was related to a 32-bit / 64-bit conflict, but with the site hosted in Azure. To change the plattform in Azure App Service, go to Configuration -> General settings.
I got this when building a project via Visual Studio Online (VSTS) Build using Visual Studio Build Steps.
The solution was:
Delete the existing source folder
Explicitly set 'Any CPU' in the platform for all Visual Studio Builds including dependencies (see screenshot below).
Re-run the build
The Chilkat .NET 4.5 assembly requires the VC++ 2012 or 2013 runtime to be installed on any computer where your application runs. Most computers will already have it installed. Your development computer will have it because Visual Studio has been installed. However, if deploying to a computer where the required VC++ runtime is not available, the above error will occur:
Install all of the bellow packages
Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013 - vcredist_x64
Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013 - vcredist_x86
Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2012 - vcredist_x64
Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2012 - vcredist_x86
You might also see this issue if you're trying to package a 64bit project with an MSI installer in VS. ("The reason is because the native shim packaged with the .msi file is a 32-bit executable.")
See here for more details: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/heaths/archive/2006/02/01/64-bit-managed-custom-actions-with-visual-studio.aspx
In my case changing IIS Express Bitness from "Default" to "x86" helped.
All my projects had "x86" as the Platform target.
I encountered the same issue. It popped up out of the blue and that seemed strange to me.
In the Exception snapshot, for the FusionLog, I saw the following within its message:
... C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64 ...
More about the fusion log: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e74a18c4(v=vs.110).aspx
All the projects had a Target CPU of AnyCPU. I changed the application project (the project that references all the other projects) to a Target CPU of x86. It now works.
Not sure how the Target CPU mix up occurred for no apparent reason, but it did.
I also face this problem in a project, after a few minutes i found the solution,
this problem is due to CPU configuration,
If you are using Visual Studio 2010 or VS 2013, just goto project 's properties and then select Compile from side bar and there will be 5 drop-down, 5th Drop-down will be Target CPU:, you should set it to x86 or x64 according to your requirements instead of Any CPU.
My problem was solved after changing it to x86.
This also can happen just by having multiple supported frameworks defined in the app.config file and, forcing the app to run in a different .NET framework other than the one mentioned first in the app.config file.
And also this fires when you have both of the mentioned frameworks available in your system.
As a workaround, bring up the target framework you are going to use for the debugging up in the app.config
ex: if you trying to run in .NET 4, config file should have something similar to this,
<supportedRuntime version="v4.0"/>
<supportedRuntime version="v2.0.50727"/>
In my project for C#, project property->[Build]->Platform target: Any CPU,
and uncheck the Prefer 32-bit to let compiler to choose automatically.
I also had this problem running unit tests by using ReSharper on Visual Studio 2017 and fixed it with following config:
Also you can change the ReSharper's run test setting:
https://resharper-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/articles/207242715-How-to-run-MSTest-tests-using-x64-configuration
Shoot! I knew about this problem. I thought I was doing everything right until I accidentally saw 'x86' in the VS output window and that's when I got hold of the cause. Wasted a few mins on it today.
The configuration under 'Publish' window was set to 'x86'; whereas, everywhere else, it was 'x64'.
Please make sure it's in-sync across configuration manager, publish settings, solution configurations, and IIS settings (if that's your web server).
Also, please keep in mind - VS is a 32-bit app and IIS is 64 bit. 32-bit apps are disabled by default in IIS.
It can be a little funny, but I had the same problem with normal working code. I added StreamWriter and StreamReader and it gave that error.
The solution was I took that code into comment brackets then did debug and it started to work again
If you use LibreOffice from your program via cli .net integration like me, I got the same error. I use the older version of LibreOffice on the production environment on my PC I installed a newer version that was in conflict. Just uninstall LibreOffice. I found the solution here .NET CLI: Could not load file or assembly 'cli_cppuhelper'
In my case a dependency was missing in the dll that threw this exception. I checked with Dependency Walker, added the missing dll and the problem was resolved.
More specifically, I somehow corrupted my opencv_core340.dll by accidentally adding SVN keywords to it, and thus my dll could no longer use it. However I don't believe that the solution to this problem depends on whether the dll is corrupted or missing. I'm just adding this for the sake of giving complete information.
I have detected something different from the other answers. Reaching this exception in my project was the result of a corrupt compilation. Without making any changes, just forcing rebuild, it was fixed.
I had the same issue. Project B in my case was a .Net Core Class Library which has a Nuget "Microsoft.Management.Infrastructure" installed. The error was that i called my project B "MI". I changed the project name to something else and suddenly everything worked again.
Interesting as it goes, this can also happen if the folder path is long, which can cause build issues, oddly enough with this cryptic error message.
Just moving the folder up the path, solved the problem!
Are you trying to run your .exe file from the cmd? This was my mistake. Just run the .exe file by double clicking it. If it's a .NET Core SCD for Windows 8.1/Windows Server 2012 R2 x64.
In my case the error was System.BadImageFormatException: Could not load file or assembly 'vjslib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies.
It was solved by installing vjredist 64 from here.
3 Days of hair pulling. It just doesn't make any sense. I can't figure out what I've missed.
So I have this C#/WPF VS2013pro project I'm building that works fine on my Visual Studio machine: Win 8.1 x64 but fails due to 'dll not found' on any target PC I transplant it to.
It uses FreeImage, which has two DLLs:
FreeImage.dll - C++ that does all the work
FreeImageNet.dll - .NET wrapper to make like easy in C#
The two need to be in the same directory and preferably the same as the .exe - so they are.
My project is 64bit. I downloaded the source for FreeImage and compiled both DLL's for x64: First the CPP one, then the .NET one. Then copied them to the solution.
The .net DLL is referenced in my solution. The CPP does not reference, of course. Both are part of the solution and copy to the %outputdir% (Bin/Debug or Bin/Release) when the solution is built. The program runs fine in DEBUG and in RELEASE on my Development PC and the DLL methods do their job.
I copy the entire BIN directory to another PC running the same version of Windows, same updates, the works... The program runs but when a method is needed from the FreeImage.dll it fails with "unable to find dll".
To make sure I'm right about it using the dll from the BIN directory (and not from System32 or SysWOW64) on my VS machine I pull it out and run the app: Yep it fails.
I put it back and move the entire directory: It works
I pull it out: It fails
I put it back and move it to a thumbdrive: It works
{you get the idea}
So at this point it sure seems like it is really using the one in the same directory as the .exe and the .NET wrapper dll
I move the thumbdrive with the code that just worked on my VS machine to the other PC: It fails.
Next I try remote debug to the other PC: All the files copy to a matched directory, debugging starts and works, I get output and breakpoint behavior from the remote PC: Only the calls that require the DLL again fail because FreeImageNet.dll cannot locate FreeImage.dll
I did nothing special on my Visual Studio machine to make FreeImage work: I downloaded the source and compiled then copied the DLLs to the solution and referenced the .NET dll - That's it.
I have Googled, and researched and opened questions on SourceForge about it.
Every previous question I have found on this issue are cases of someone thinking FreeImageNet.dll was self-contained and not realizing it had to be located along side of FreeImage.dll
I have checked registry for I have checked registry for HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet/Control/SessionManager/KnownDLLs/
I have tried to register it with regsrver32 (yes, the 64bit flavor)
I have tried setting an environmental variable to it.
I have tried copying the DLL to every directory that is part of the DLL search order.
I have tried it on Win8.1x64pro (same as my Visual Studio pc) and two Win7x64pro machines.
I have assumed it was some weird quirk in 3.16 of FreeImage and done this again and again with previous releases as far back as 3.6, all with the same results.
I have built an installer for the solution and installed it on the VS machine where it worked, and installed it on the test machine where it failed.
I am trying for the first time (and not so successfully) to virtualize my physical PC. VMware has always been good to me for test environments and at this point I want to see if a total clone of the Visual Studio machine will succeed or fail with this project.
So... Anyone have an idea?
Darn it, I missed one: vcomp120.dll
Seems it is part of the Visual C++ redistributable that was installed with Visual Studio.
It should have dawned on me that I would need to include this, but with the entire EMGUcv package working... and the fact that I hate C++ and haven't used it in a dozen years... It totally never occurred to me.
Can you please try to import the dll with DLLIMPORT. Copy and place the dll to the directory same as of exe and use following code in Code behind:
[DllImport("FIBITMAP.dll")]
public static extern void Load(string param1,string param2,...);
Here Param1, Param2,... will be your parameters to the function Load.
Hope this helps.
I believe that I am dealing with some DLL hell.
I have a reference to Microsoft.TeamFoundations.VersionControl.Client in my application and 'copy local' is set to true. The application runs as expected on my development machine.
When I deploy this application I get an exception when trying to execute Microsoft.TeamFoundations.VersionControl.Client.DownloadFile()
Method not found: 'System.IO.Stream Microsoft.TeamFoundation.VersionControl.Client.Item.DownloadFile()'.
The version that gets deployed to my bin directory is version 9.0.3. The method exists. I noticed that a previous version of this dll does live in
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies
How come my application does not appear to be using the assembly that I referenced within my solution and ends up in bin? How can I force this to happen?
Thanks!
I'm not sure if this is it, when I was trying to use TFS 2008, I had to target the x86 processor instead of Any CPU in the project settings. Without doing that, I was finding wierdness when my app deployed to other peoples machines.
Also, I deploy a number of dll's with my app, maybe you've missed deploying something that VersionControl.Client.dll depends on, and it's trying to use another dll of which it's getting the wrong version. I distribute the following (not sure if they're all needed, but you could try distributing more to see if that solved it):
Microsoft.Build.Framework.dll
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Client.dll
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.dll
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Collaboration.dll
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Common.dll
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Common.Library.dll
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.dll
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.VersionControl.Client.dll
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.VersionControl.Common.dll
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.VersionControl.Controls.dll
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Controls.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.Client.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.dll
It appears from this link Microsoft.TeamFoundation.VersionControl.Client.Item.DownloadFile() is missing that there are other (and presumably safer) way to do this with other methods.
The application insisted on referencing these dlls from the GAC. I ended up installing VS 2010 on the development environment and referencing the Microsoft.TeamFoundation dlls from the GAC. VS 2010 installed version 10 of the Team Foundation dlls into the development GAC.
I have a DLL (FreeType) which is certainly 32-bit (header: IMAGE_FILE_MACHINE_I386).
I want to use it from C# code, using DllImport.
Target of my application is x86, IntPtr.Size is 4, process is 32-bit.
But I get BadImageFormatException (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007000B). What can be wrong?
Of course I use 64-bit Windows 7.
From what I understand, an assembly specifically built for x86 and running in a 64-bit operating system can only load libraries built for x86 or a BadImageFormatException will be thrown. In a 64-bit OS, an assembly built for Any CPU or x64 will throw the same exception when trying to load an x86 library.
So, assuming nothing incredibly weird is going on, I would ensure that you've set your application to build as x86 by opening the project properties and clicking on the Build tab. Ensure 'Platform Target' is set as 'x86' and not Any CPU.
Alternatively, you could try to find a 64-bit version of the DLL for testing purposes.
Recompile the dll with the option "Any CPU" in Build -> Platform.
OK, seems like a false alert. It was not related to bitness, there was just other DLL missing that freetype depends on. However error messages could be more helpful.
Got the same error when calling a 64-bit C Dll from C#. I had to manually change C# Properties->Build->Platform target from Any Cpu to x64. Apparently Any Cpu is sometimes NoCpu.
Besides, for web-application needs resolve to run 32-Bit Applications in IIS 7. See http://www.fishofprey.com/2009/04/badimageformatexception-in-iis-70-on-64.html
I had a similar error.
I could solve it by adding the ucrtbase.dll or ucrtbased.dll for debug as well as the vcruntime140.dll or vcruntime140d.dll for debug into the directory of the executable.
I think the 140 depends on the version number of Visual Studio you are using.
ucrtbase.dll usually lies in C:\Windows\System32.
vcruntime140.dll lies in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\Remote Debugger\x86\vcruntime140.dll
You can find more information here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vcblog/archive/2015/03/03/introducing-the-universal-crt.aspx
I suspect the common cause of this exception has changed in the 8 years since the question was first asked. On my setup using VS 2017 I found that unchecking "Prefer 32-bit" solved the issue:
Uncheck "Prefer 32-bit" in the Build options
This made my 64-bit DLL built from C++ load correctly. Conversely, checking this option should make 32-bit DLLs load correctly.
When you build a native application/DLL something with Visual Studio, it gains a dependency on the "redistributable" package for that version of Visual Studio. That contains DLLs like msvcr100.dll and msvcp100.dll (for various values of 100).
In my case, I had seen those DLLs in the target machine's Windows/system32 directory, so I thought all was well. It turns out that those DLLs were x64! I have no idea why a directory called system32 contains 64-bit DLLs. So I searched my Visual Studio 2010 directory for everything named msvc*.dll, and found x86 versions of msvcr100.dll and msvcp100.dll. I copied those to the target machine (in a place accessible from my program's path) and all was well.
I hope this helps someone else confronted with Microsoft's sheer madness.
you use Properties in C# project, and change "Platform target" to x64.
enter image description here
You can try check the option "Properties" -> "Build" -> "Allow unsafe code".
You have to look at the dependents of the DLL, since one of the dependents may use a 64 bit DLL which makes it incompatible with your project.
visual studio -> tools -> command line -> powershell
dumpbin /dependents your_dll_file.dll
and check these dll's and find out which one is actually not the same with your dll.
I had the same Exception in MS Visual C# Express 2010. I checked all build .dll and .exe files with Dependency Walker and MiTeC EXE Explorer, everything was build for 32bit!
In the end, it was the following line missing in my .csproj file:
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'MY_CONFIG|x86'">
...
<PlatformTarget>x86</PlatformTarget>
...
</PropertyGroup>
I don't know why it was missing ... I guess MS Visual C# Express 2010 is not bugfree ;)