Visual Studio 2013 > New project > unspecified error (exception from hresult: 0x80004005 (e_fail))

Question

Can anybody shed any light on the above error? I've tried with both Express and Ultimate editions of VS 2013.

I'm running 64-bit Windows 7.

Solutions to similar problems I've found tend to be targetting x86 rather than AnyCPU from the Solution explorer. However, I can't even build the solution to explore it.

The new project I'm trying to build is c# ASP.net MVC.

Answer 1

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. On the PC I'm using, the Documents directory and it's contents are encrypted by default - including my IISExpress. Removing the encryption solved the problem.

Answer 2

Have you tried to manually install NuGet for VS 2013?

I had a similar issue, until I found that the VS 2013 setup - for some reason - did not install the NuGet package manager. After I installed it manually everything worked fine.

Answer 3

I'm running on Win 8.1 Pro (64 bits) with Visual Studio Express for web 2013

The were two problems in my machine, namely :

• the applicationhost.config file in C:\Users(insert your user log in name)\Documents\IISExpress\config was not well formed. It seems this problem occurs because the .NET configuration system reads the applicationHost.config file without locking it. If the IIS configuration file is being written to while it is being read by the Windows Activation Service (WAS), that file may be corrupted. Anyhow, I binged around and downloaded a pristine copy of it.

• After fixing the above problem, I subsequently encountered the same error message (unspecified error - exception from hresult: 0x80004005 (e_fail) ). I then tried to create an MVC web project via another way. I created a blank solution and added an MVC web project to it and this time the IDE spewed out a different message. The pop-up window dumped a cryptic line like so, "IIS could not read C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Config\web.config - error". I proceeded to uninstall IIS 8.0 and re-installed the application. And voila, I can now create MVC web apps again! :)

Answer 4

FOUND SOLUTION

Go to Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Select your Visual Studio Version and hit "Change"

1) Click MODIFY and enable Web Developer Tools

2) Enable Web Developer Tools

3) Click Update

Answer 5

Removing Read Only property from IISExpress\Config files (applicationhost, aspnet, redirection) solved the problem for me.