SQL Server VSS Writer refuses to start

Question

I've got Visual Studio 2012 installed on Windows 7 64 bit machine. I am trying to install SQL Server express LocalDB and get an error when the installer tries to start services. Here is the exact error message:

Service 'SQL Server VSS Writer' failed to start. Verify you have sufficient privileges to start system services.

I am logged on to the machine as administrator. I have verified that the writter in Services is running and it is set to Auto.

I have no SQL Server installed on this machine as far as I know.

I'm stumped. Anyone have any ideas?

Also when I try to start SQL Writer in Services I get the following error:

Windows could not start the SQL Server VSS Writer service on local computer.

Error 1053: The server did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

Answer 1

Thanks to Process Explorer, we can see there's a missing MSVCP140.dll when the service is trying to start (and failing) :

The solution is to install the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015 :

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48145