Task Runner Explorer not working

Question

I have applied Gulp on my project made in VS2015 Community. But when I use the Task Runner Explorer, a dialog box appears saying "Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation." I tried doing the (PATH) thing in the "Configure External Web Tool" but it didn't help at all.

NPM install is working and Gulp is executing properly.

I'm using the following versions

• .NET Framework 4.6.1
• Gulp v1.3.15
• npm v1.3.15
• Node v5.3.0

Also, when I run the project and open the Task Runner Explorer, i have this exception below:

An exception was encountered while constructing the content of this frame.  This information is also logged in "C:\Users\marvin\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\ActivityLog.xml".
Exception details:
System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. ---> System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TaskRunnerExplorer.TaskRunnerUserControl.InitializeControl(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.RaiseInitialized(EventPrivateKey key, EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.OnInitialized(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.TryFireInitialized()
   at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.EndInit()
   at MS.Internal.Xaml.Runtime.ClrObjectRuntime.InitializationGuard(XamlType xamlType, Object obj, Boolean begin)
   at MS.Internal.Xaml.Runtime.PartialTrustTolerantRuntime.InitializationGuard(XamlType xamlType, Object obj, Boolean begin)
   at System.Xaml.XamlObjectWriter.Logic_EndInit(ObjectWriterContext ctx)
   at System.Xaml.XamlObjectWriter.WriteEndObject()
   at System.Xaml.XamlWriter.WriteNode(XamlReader reader)
   at System.Windows.Markup.WpfXamlLoader.TransformNodes(XamlReader xamlReader, XamlObjectWriter xamlWriter, Boolean onlyLoadOneNode, Boolean skipJournaledProperties, Boolean shouldPassLineNumberInfo, IXamlLineInfo xamlLineInfo, IXamlLineInfoConsumer xamlLineInfoConsumer, XamlContextStack`1 stack, IStyleConnector styleConnector)
   at System.Windows.Markup.WpfXamlLoader.Load(XamlReader xamlReader, IXamlObjectWriterFactory writerFactory, Boolean skipJournaledProperties, Object rootObject, XamlObjectWriterSettings settings, Uri baseUri)
   at System.Windows.Markup.WpfXamlLoader.LoadBaml(XamlReader xamlReader, Boolean skipJournaledProperties, Object rootObject, XamlAccessLevel accessLevel, Uri baseUri)
   at System.Windows.Markup.XamlReader.LoadBaml(Stream stream, ParserContext parserContext, Object parent, Boolean closeStream)
   at System.Windows.Application.LoadComponent(Object component, Uri resourceLocator)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TaskRunnerExplorer.TaskRunnerUserControl.InitializeComponent()
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TaskRunnerExplorer.TaskRunnerToolWindow..ctor()
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at System.RuntimeTypeHandle.CreateInstance(RuntimeType type, Boolean publicOnly, Boolean noCheck, Boolean& canBeCached, RuntimeMethodHandleInternal& ctor, Boolean& bNeedSecurityCheck)
   at System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceSlow(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean skipCheckThis, Boolean fillCache, StackCrawlMark& stackMark)
   at System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceDefaultCtor(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean skipCheckThis, Boolean fillCache, StackCrawlMark& stackMark)
   at System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type, Boolean nonPublic)
   at System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Package.InstantiateToolWindow(Type toolWindowType)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Package.CreateToolWindow(Type toolWindowType, Int32 id, UInt32 flags)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Package.CreateToolWindow(Type toolWindowType, Int32 id, ProvideToolWindowAttribute tool)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Package.FindToolWindow(Type toolWindowType, Int32 id, Boolean create, ProvideToolWindowAttribute tool)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Package.CreateToolWindow(Guid& toolWindowType, Int32 id)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Package.Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.IVsToolWindowFactory.CreateToolWindow(Guid& toolWindowType, UInt32 id)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Platform.WindowManagement.WindowFrame.ConstructContent()

Answer 1

I had the same error and noticed my C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Microsoft\Web Tools directory was empty.

Fixed it by re-installing the Microsoft ASP.NET and Web Tools extension.