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Thread: MAJOR Problems Installing Visual Studio 2013

  1. #1

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    MAJOR Problems Installing Visual Studio 2013

    For reference, I have another thread here, asking more basic questions, such as which version to download and install, what guide to use, etc... in order to teach myself how to program Visual Basic.

    This thread is separate because I'm having a lot of difficulty installing Visual Studio from the link located here. The left (purple) download link downloads "vs_community.exe" to my Google Chrome download directory and I then "Run as.." Administrator.

    The primary, basic, "main" problem is that, after an apparently successful installation (and reboot), double-clicking the "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" icon results in the cursor spinning for a bit, about 1 second of the "Visual Studio" splash screen, which then closes and that's it. There is no process related to "visual studio" running, however the "SQL Active Directory Helper Service" and the "SQL Server (SQLEXPRESS)" services are listed in Task Manager, but are "Stopped". Manually trying to start either of these from Task Manager results in the error messages:

    SQL Active Directory Helper Service
    "Unable to Start Service
    The Operation could not be completed.
    The System cannot find the path specified"
    The other error message is slightly different:

    SQL Server (SQLEXPRESS)
    "Unable to Start Service
    The Operation could not be completed.
    The Dependency Service or Group Failed to Start"
    I checked the Services and the 2nd service is dependent on the 1st, so if the 1st does not start the 2nd one isn't going to, which means the problem is somehow involved with (but not necessarily starting with) the "SQL Active Directory Helper Service". My thoughts are if this service could be made to "go", everything else should fall into place.

    There used to be an older, different version of Visual Basic installed on this computer (over a year ago), and so one theory is that it has a path from the old installation written somewhere in the registry that did not get deleted/overwritten during the various new installations.

    Over the last 4 days I've "Repaired" the software once, and installed it twice. At first I would download and install while my VPN ("Private Internet Access") was running, but decided at some point that it was a possible cause of the problem and so I disabled it.

    The download & install went MUCH faster (1 hour compared to 14+ hours), but the result was the same. Also prior to the last install, I used "Revo Uninstaller" and uninstalled everything and anything that I could find that I thought might even remotely have something to do with Visual Studio. I figured that if VS needed something, it would download and install it (such as Silverlight stuff, SQL Server stuff, or whatever).

    To my knowledge, the computer is malware-free, I've run sfc /scannow to make certain I have good system files, I've run chkdsk to make certain hard drive errors are not causing problems and I've run TDSKiller (a rootkit detection utility) to make certain that wasn't a problem.

    A check of Event Viewer's log shows no errors at all, particularly relating to Visual Studio, Visual Basic, SQL, .NET, etc...

    I've run out of ideas. Curious if this is a common problem? Sometimes there are "clean-out" softwares made available to really, REALLY get rid of previous versions. Otherwise, what's the next step to take? Thanks in advance.
    Last edited by Pinky_Brain; Jan 26th, 2015 at 01:16 AM.

  2. #2
    Smooth Moperator techgnome's Avatar
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    Re: MAJOR Problems Installing Visual Studio 2013

    Well, I can tell you that you don't need the "SQL Active Directory Helper Service" ... mine's disabled and SQL Server runs just fine (all 3 versions & 5 instances). What you should have running is SQL Server and SQL Server Agent at the very least. Additionally you then have SQL Server BRowser, SQL Server Integration Services, and SQL Server Reporting Services. But those last 3 are going to be part of SQL Server, not Express. A quick scan of my services shows only Agent and SQL Server runnign as SQLExpress... everything else is related to the Full Instances of SQL Server.

    The only reason I can think of that the services won't start is because of the logon account not being right. Right-click on the service and pull up the Propertied. Click the Log On tab and see what the service is set to run as. Mine is "Network Services" ... but I'm not sure I could tell you what the password is or anything else. Other instances are using "NT Service\MSSQL${SQL Server Instance name}" and a password. It's probably due to how we do a lot of web service work and so our app access our databases using a service rather than an actual user account. Might be worth looking into and seeing if changing it works.

    Googling "sql server express does not start" seemed to turn up a number of results where this has happened.
    https://www.google.com/webhp?q=sql+s...does+not+start

    IT does look like it's more common than I thought it would be.

    -tg
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  3. #3

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    Re: MAJOR Problems Installing Visual Studio 2013

    Quote Originally Posted by techgnome View Post
    Well, I can tell you that you don't need the "SQL Active Directory Helper Service" ... mine's disabled and ....
    Thanks for the response. I spent the afternoon digging into this thing and noticed that under "Services", 3 of the 5 Visual Studio related Services are missing their "path to executable", which is consistent with one of the error messages that the "system cannot find the file" (or similar).

    Visual Studio ETW Event Collection Service: Starts, has path to executable, no dependencies
    SQL Server VSS Writer: Starts, has path to executable, no dependencies
    SQL Server Agent (SQLEXPRESS): No Start, no path to executable, dependent upon SQL Server
    SQL Server (SQLEXPRESS): No Start, no path to executable, no dependencies
    SQL Active Directory Helper Service: No Start, no path to executable, no dependencies

    Those Services that have a path to executable will Start. Those that do not will not Start. One will also not start ("SQL Server Agent") because it is dependent on SQL Server.

    So at this point I don't know if the best course of action is to once again try to cleanly uninstall and then try to reinstall the Visual Studio software, or if some individualized registry key repair might fix this. In case #2, I'd need to know where the "path to executable" for these services are stored in the Registry, and then figure-out how to create/repair them.

    I did find a "Microsoft Fixit" tool that claimed to have uninstalled an odd-looking Visual Studio entry. For some reason, one of the "subversions" (Russian, I think. It had a -Rus hyphenated extension on it) was listed by this tool separate from the entire Visual Studio Suite, and instead of the russian characters it has 5 question mark characters ("?????") which makes me wonder if THAT might have been part of the problem, IDK. I see lots of complaints about Visual Studio but not many solutions. I'm also finding data in the Program Files and entries in the Registry that refer to Visual Studio version 11, and I'm not sure if those are leftovers from a previous installation, or if that is normally included in the current installation. Thus far I've resisted the urge to delete anything & everything that doesn't explicitly say "version 12" on it.

    Quote Originally Posted by techgnome View Post
    The only reason I can think of that the services won't start is because of the logon account not being right. Right-click on the service and pull up the Propertied. Click the Log On tab and see what the service is set to run as. Mine is "Network Services" ... but I'm not sure I could tell you what the password is or anything else. Other instances are using "NT Service\MSSQL${SQL Server Instance name}" and a password. It's probably due to how we do a lot of web service work and so our app access our databases using a service rather than an actual user account. Might be worth looking into and seeing if changing it works.
    First thing I did was change the logon credentials from Network Service to Local Account and it gave the same "system cannot find the file" error message.

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    Last edited by Pinky_Brain; Jan 26th, 2015 at 07:33 PM.

  4. #4

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    Re: MAJOR Problems Installing Visual Studio 2013

    Still working on this.

    While in the registry, I note a LOT of entries for VBExress 10.0 and Visual Studio 10.0 when the Install is supposed to be Visual Studio 12.0.

    Should I be seeing all these 10.0 versions in the registry? Did they come in with 12.0? Could these be "leftovers" from a previous installation and interfering with the new installation from completely correctly? Should I delete all these 10.0 entries?

  5. #5

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    Re: MAJOR Problems Installing Visual Studio 2013

    Still working on this.

    Today I note that Windows Update is not working, so now I'm thinking malware.

  6. #6

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    Re: MAJOR Problems Installing Visual Studio 2013

    Still working on this.
    I have Windows Search (service) uninstalled from Win7 because it's crap, and I'm wondering if that might be the reason why Visual Studio's installation is failing.

    Does Visual Studio need the Windows Search service installed and running?

  7. #7
    Smooth Moperator techgnome's Avatar
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    Re: MAJOR Problems Installing Visual Studio 2013

    Beats me... I've never experienced an issue with the install... the only install I've had an issue with was SQL Server 2010, and that's because the help desk installed it and didn't set the permissions on it correctly for me to access my own server. I install everything on my own now. That said, I'm also using the full versions, not the express/community version.

    -tg
    * I don't respond to private (PM) requests for help. It's not conducive to the general learning of others.*
    * I also don't respond to friend requests. Save a few bits and don't bother. I'll just end up rejecting anyways.*
    * How to get EFFECTIVE help: The Hitchhiker's Guide to Getting Help at VBF - Removing eels from your hovercraft *
    * How to Use Parameters * Create Disconnected ADO Recordset Clones * Set your VB6 ActiveX Compatibility * Get rid of those pesky VB Line Numbers * I swear I saved my data, where'd it run off to??? *

  8. #8

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    Re: MAJOR Problems Installing Visual Studio 2013

    I'm still working on this. I have GMER and a whole suite of other diagnostic and utilities arrayed and ready to do battle. I have 4 CLSIDs in particular that I distrust, as they are all unique and return no results in a Google search.

    Theory #1 is that the previous installation of Visual Basic was infected, and when I uninstalled it, everything left but the malware, and that it is the infected files that are preventing the new installation of Visual Studio from completely successfully.

    Else there's active malware from another source, but it's REALLY well hidden. So well hidden that I wonder if it's not even there.

    Theory #2 is that some critical registry entry is wrong, or missing and as a result a critical service or other file is not available when it is needed, and that is the reason for why Visual Studio not being able to install correctly.

    Also there is a problem with windows update, and I don't know if they are two separate problems, or if they re related. I've posted on several forums and cannot seem to find anyone to give me any substantive help on either of these problems (visual studio or windows update).

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