Installation problems of C# deployment

Question

I have a program I deployed using ClickOnce deployment and then installed on my machine. I tried running it, and it gave me the following error:

PLATFORM VERSION INFO
    Windows                 : 5.1.2600.196608 (Win32NT)
    Common Language Runtime : 2.0.50727.3053
    System.Deployment.dll   : 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
    mscorwks.dll            : 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
    dfdll.dll               : 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
    dfshim.dll              : 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)

SOURCES
    Deployment url          : file:///C:/../MyProg.appref-ms%7C

ERROR SUMMARY
    Below is a summary of the errors, details of these errors are listed later in the log.
    * Activation of C:\..\MyProg.appref-ms| resulted in exception. Following failure messages were detected:
        + The referenced assembly is not installed on your system. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800736B3)

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION FAILURE SUMMARY
    No transaction error was detected.

WARNINGS
    There were no warnings during this operation.

OPERATION PROGRESS STATUS
    * [3/30/09 2:45:10 PM] : Activation of C:\..\MyProg.appref-ms| has started.

ERROR DETAILS
    Following errors were detected during this operation.
    * [3/30/09 2:45:16 PM] System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException
        - The referenced assembly is not installed on your system. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800736B3)
        - Source: System.Deployment
        - Stack trace:
            at System.Deployment.Internal.Isolation.IStore.GetAssemblyInformation(UInt32 Flags, IDefinitionIdentity DefinitionIdentity, Guid& riid)
            at System.Deployment.Internal.Isolation.Store.GetAssemblyManifest(UInt32 Flags, IDefinitionIdentity DefinitionIdentity)
            at System.Deployment.Application.ComponentStore.GetAssemblyManifest(DefinitionIdentity asmId)
            at System.Deployment.Application.ComponentStore.GetSubscriptionStateInternal(DefinitionIdentity subId)
            at System.Deployment.Application.SubscriptionStore.GetSubscriptionStateInternal(SubscriptionState subState)
            at System.Deployment.Application.SubscriptionState.Validate()
            at System.Deployment.Application.SubscriptionState.get_IsInstalled()
            at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.ProcessOrFollowShortcut(String shortcutFile, String& errorPageUrl, TempFile& deployFile)
            at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivation(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl)
            at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.ActivateDeploymentWorker(Object state)

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION DETAILS
    No transaction information is available.

I cannot uninstall the program, but I can't see why (a dialog pops up for a second and disappears before I can read it), and I can't reinstall the application until I have uninstalled the old version.

What might the problem is, and what I can do about it?

Previous versions were deployed using Visual Studio 2008. This version was deployed using Visual C# Express Edition. There is a dependency for the MySQL Connection package. I have not customized any of the settings when publishing, beyond the location of the directory and the version number (non-duplicate version number).

Answer 1

Your application store may be messed up. You can try deleting this key (it will all remove any currently installed Click-Once applications):

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Deployment\SideBySide

As a note, if your application 'works' besides that error or on other machines, then this is likely your issue.