Friday, September 12, 2008

SideBySide Event Log Error

Just came across a computer that was going havoc and displayed this funny error message in the system event log (Rough translation of the original version in German):

Dependend assembly "Microsoft.VC80.MFC” could not be found. “Last Error”: The references Assembly is not installed on this computer.

After search a little bit around, I finally found out that VC80 stand for Visual C++ 2005 (internally 8.0). And because Microsoft installs all newer Visual C++ runtime files as side by side assemblies into C:\WINDOWS\WinSXS, you don’t get the normal “DLL not found” but this message.

Well, the solution is easy: Just download and install the Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package from here

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=200B2FD9-AE1A-4A14-984D-389C36F85647&displaylang=en

Please note that there is also a new package available (Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package) but this will install the files for Microsoft.VC90. Also note that you need to download and install the version that matches your computer. If you are using a 64bit Version of Windows, you will need to download the x64 version, not the x86 one I linked above.

And for your reference:
Visual C++ 2003 = Version 7.0
Visual C++ 2005 = Version 8.0
Visual C++ 2008 = Version 9.0

4 comments:

  1. Same on my PC 11_Jan_09

    "Generate Activation Context failed for C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.VC80.MFC_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.762_x-ww_3bf8fa05\MFC80U.DLL. Reference error message: The operation completed successfully."

    Another: "Dependent Assembly Microsoft.VC80.MFCLOC could not be found and Last Error was The referenced assembly is not installed on your system."


    Found this repeatedly in Event Viewer, wondered why my system was slow to start.

    Now all good!

    You da man!!!!!

    Thanks!!!!

    tt

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for your help!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you for the suggestion.

    I had to download the "SP1" version
    of Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable
    to get my application to launch
    without error (x86 32-bit).

    Scott

    ReplyDelete