error CS2012: Cannot open <executable path> access to <executable path denied>

Question

I was working on a WPF application in Visual Studio 2015 and all went well until unexpectedly the build dropped me the CS2012 error inform me that it cannot access/update the executable in the /Debug directory.

I tried the following and it didn't work:

1. Restart
2. Close VS and open the application again
3. Build->Clean

I couldn't find any solution in the web so I tried: 1. to move the whole project directory to another location. 2. creating a new WPF project and assembling it file by file with copy/pastes.

The weird thing was that in both cases the application worked in the new location. I continued the experimentation (in the original directory) and i tried to build a "Hello World" Console application in the same directory. The result was that the trivial console application didn't work and produced the same problem as the WPF application (CS2012 error).

Since I haven't noticed any activity of another program (i.e., antivirus) trying to quarantine (or changing the file/folder permissions of) this folder, I assume that this has been done by VS somehow but I don't know why. Perhaps it is a bug.

Is anyone has a logical explanation about this problem? And a way to fix it?

Answer 1

I found that my other running solution was referencing the same < executable path>.

Just make sure that no other process is using the referenced folder/file/dll

Answer 2

Try to close all processes, move the project to a different folder (on a different disk) b restart the computer and everything will work as it should. It worked for me without any problems. Hope this helps someone