Hi,
I installed Visual Studio 2005 and applied the service pack 1 which failed. After that I had a non-working VS2005 and several other programs such as Messenger. After a lot of work I got everything working again except BOINC. First I thought that some of the .NET Frameworks were still trashed but I read that BOINC doesn't use them. I've tried to uninstall/install/reinstall BOINC but it hasn't helped.
One clue that might help in tracking the problem down is that Outlook 2003 has reverted to using buttons with hard corners instead of the soft corners. I guess some file or component is missing. Can anyone help?

The error message:
The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0150004).

Regards,
Linus Silvander

After a lot of work I got everything working again

Can you explain what this work was that you did? Reinstall Windows with a repair install, perhaps? Any updates for Windows that you forgot to reinstall, specifically the Windows Installer updates?

There is something on this error message together with VS2005: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922279

Now, BOINC is written in Visual C++, so I still feel something on your system is awry that doesn't allow it to function properly. And not to completely scare you, but one person in a similar situation only got around it by reformatting/reinstalling Windows.

I'll ask the BOINC developer to come by later on, perhaps that he has a way around it.

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After a lot of work I got everything working again

Can you explain what this work was that you did? Reinstall Windows with a repair install, perhaps? Any updates for Windows that you forgot to reinstall, specifically the Windows Installer updates?

There is something on this error message together with VS2005: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922279

Now, BOINC is written in Visual C++, so I still feel something on your system is awry that doesn't allow it to function properly. And not to completely scare you, but one person in a similar situation only got around it by reformatting/reinstalling Windows.

I'll ask the BOINC developer to come by later on, perhaps that he has a way around it.

The thing I did to get everything(well almost) working again was to uninstall VS2005, delete the all *vc80* files in the c:\windows\WinSXS directory and the directory c:\windows\WinSXS\Policies\. After that I reinstalled VS2005 but not the service pack 1 and repaired the .NET Framework 2.0 and 3.0 and reinstalled 1.1. I don't have 1.0 installed on my computer.
Thanks for the link to Microsoft. I searched their pages but couldn't find anything. I'll check on the solution offered by MS when I get to my work computer tomorrow. Although I have the software to reinstall Windows and programs I would hope to avoid it as everything is setup just right. I could try to reinstall only Outlook and see if that would fix everything...
Thanks for help!

The thing I did to get everything(well almost) working again was to uninstall VS2005, delete the all *vc80* files in the c:\windows\WinSXS directory and the directory c:\windows\WinSXS\Policies.

Did you also delete all the x86_Microsoft.VC80.* sub-directories?

How did you install VS 2005's service pack the first time? Download it completely and install that, or use the small file and update from the net? A link to the complete file is here.

Please also check what version of Windows Installer you use. It must be WI 3.1 or later, both for installing the SP and for installing BOINC on WinXP systems.

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The thing I did to get everything(well almost) working again was to uninstall VS2005, delete the all *vc80* files in the c:windowsWinSXS directory and the directory c:windowsWinSXSPolicies.

Did you also delete all the x86_Microsoft.VC80.* sub-directories?

How did you install VS 2005's service pack the first time? Download it completely and install that, or use the small file and update from the net? A link to the complete file is here.

Please also check what version of Windows Installer you use. It must be WI 3.1 or later, both for installing the SP and for installing BOINC on WinXP systems.

I've the latest Installer 3.1. The problem I had with the service pack was that I thought that 1.5 Gb would be enough for the 440 Mb packet that Windows Update downloaded. What I didn't know was that it unpacked/downloaded/needed 6.5 Gb of free space to install. Thanks for the link. I'll download the complete service pack to another partition than c: and install it from there, assuming it doesn't dump everything into c:(VS2005 is installed on a different partition).

I think I deleted the directories also or then I mixed up the words directories/files.

It might be that the service pack changed some registry values that were never reset after it failed to install. Hopefully installing the service pack would fix everything but I'm not holding my breath.

It's just such a nightmare to figure out a solution to what's gone wrong in Windows if it isn't obvious. I remember back in my Amiga days, there was a program called Snoopdos that would log all the files and resources a program would try to get and also if it succeeded or failed. Is there such a program for Windows? Life would be so much easier.

Check around on System Internals. I'd think between Autoruns, Filemon and Process Explorer that you'll find those are the things you need.

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I'll download the complete service pack to another partition than c: and install it from there, assuming it doesn't dump everything into c:(VS2005 is installed on a different partition).

No it won't.

I've got Visual C++ 2005 Express installed (to compile BOINC clients). My C: partition of just 5GB has only got 2.5GB free, and so as far as I know, it updated VC++ immediately and only dumped the extra files in the C:\WinNT\Winsxs directory.

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I'll download the complete service pack to another partition than c: and install it from there, assuming it doesn't dump everything into c:(VS2005 is installed on a different partition).

No it won't.

I've got Visual C++ 2005 Express installed (to compile BOINC clients). My C: partition of just 5GB has only got 2.5GB free, and so as far as I know, it updated VC++ immediately and only dumped the extra files in the C:WinNTWinsxs directory.

BOINC is working again. After I installed the VS2005 service pack 1 BOINC started to work again. I still have the hard-cornered buttons in Outlook but it works so I won't complain. Thanks for all the help!

After I installed the VS2005 service pack 1 BOINC started to work again.

The wonders of computing...

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After I installed the VS2005 service pack 1 BOINC started to work again.

The wonders of computing...

Or would that be the wonders of Windows...

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Kathryn :o)

I had a quick chat with Rom Walton. He said that the mis-install of the service pack for VS 2005 left behind updated C runtime libraries and application- and assembly-manifests in a different location as well, not only in the Winsxs directory. These play havoc with your system and don't allow software to be installed or run correctly, until they get their place in the registry.

It's very difficult to hunt down all those files by hand, so a reinstall of the package that damaged everything is usually the way to go (as you did do). The only other way around is by reinstalling Windows. Luckily it didn't come that far. :-)

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He said that the mis-install of the service pack for VS 2005 left behind updated C runtime libraries and application- and assembly-manifests in a different location as well, not only in the Winsxs directory. These play havoc with your system and don't allow software to be installed or run correctly, until they get their place in the registry.

Installing a development environment may cause your installed apps to stop working - gotta love Windows.