Visual Studio 2013 wont run as administrator

Question

I'm trying to get Visual Studio 2013 running as an administrator, but I'm constantly getting errors. I've searched and tried solutions for other versions of VS, but those fixes didn't apply, so hopefully someone here can help.

When I try to run VS2013 as an admin, I an error saying that the application cannot start.

I saw a few articles talking about copying and registering dte*.olb files, but they were for previous versions of VS. I copied one of the files over and registered it and I can now get past the original error, but I can't compile any application - including any default template workspaces. Before I went too crazy and potentially made things worse, I wanted to ask here.

If I don't get the "application cannot start" message, I get this message when I try to compile anything:

---------------------------
Microsoft Visual Studio
---------------------------
Error loading type library/DLL. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80029C4A (TYPE_E_CANTLOADLIBRARY))
---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------

The problem is that that error code doesn't tell me what library wont load.

The output window says:

Error occurred while restoring NuGet packages: Error loading type library/DLL. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80029C4A (TYPE_E_CANTLOADLIBRARY))
1>------ Build started: Project: WcfService1, Configuration: Debug Any CPU ------
1>  WcfService1 -> C:\Users\David\Documents\Visual Studio 2013\Projects\WcfService1\WcfService1\bin\WcfService1.dll
========== Build: 1 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling NuGet with no change in the behavior.

And if I go to the project properties, I can't see the Web, Package/Publish Web, or Code Analysis Tabs.

Does anyone have any idea how to fix this?

This is on Windows 8.1 Pro. My exact VS configuration is below.

Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2013
Version 12.0.30110.00 Update 1
Microsoft .NET Framework
Version 4.5.51641

Installed Version: Professional

LightSwitch for Visual Studio 2013   06177-004-0444002-02105
Microsoft LightSwitch for Visual Studio 2013

Microsoft Office Developer Tools - Update 1 for Visual Studio 2013 ENU   06177-004-0444002-02105
Microsoft Office Developer Tools - Update 1 for Visual Studio 2013 ENU

Team Explorer for Visual Studio 2013   06177-004-0444002-02105
Microsoft Team Explorer for Visual Studio 2013

Visual Basic 2013   06177-004-0444002-02105
Microsoft Visual Basic 2013

Visual C# 2013   06177-004-0444002-02105
Microsoft Visual C# 2013

Visual C++ 2013   06177-004-0444002-02105
Microsoft Visual C++ 2013

Visual F# 2013   06177-004-0444002-02105
Microsoft Visual F# 2013

Visual Studio 2013 Code Analysis Spell Checker   06177-004-0444002-02105
Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2013 Code Analysis Spell Checker

Portions of International CorrectSpell™ spelling correction system © 1993 by Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition Copyright © 1992 Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic version licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved.

Windows Phone SDK 8.0 - ENU   06177-004-0444002-02105
Windows Phone SDK 8.0 - ENU

ASP.NET and Web Tools   2013.1.41009
Microsoft Web Developer Tools contains the following components:
Support for creating and opening ASP.NET web projects
Browser Link: A communication channel between Visual Studio and browsers
Editor extensions for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
Page Inspector: Inspection tool for ASP.NET web projects
Scaffolding: A framework for building and running code generators
Server Explorer extensions for Windows Azure Web Sites
Web publishing: Extensions for publishing ASP.NET web projects to hosting providers, on-premises servers, or Windows Azure

ASP.NET Web Frameworks and Tools 2012.2   4.1.21001.0
For additional information, visit http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=309563

ASP.NET Web Frameworks and Tools 2013   5.0.11213.0
For additional information, visit http://www.asp.net/

Common Azure Tools   1.0
Provides common services for use by Azure Mobile Services and Windows Azure Tools.

JetBrains ReSharper 8.1   Full Edition build 8.1.23.546 on 2013-12-12T07:30:52
JetBrains ReSharper 8.1 package for Microsoft Visual Studio. For more information about ReSharper, visit http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/. Copyright © 2003–2014 JetBrains, Inc.

Microsoft Advertising SDK for Windows Phone   
Microsoft Advertising SDK for Windows Phone
Build 

NuGet Package Manager   2.8.50126.477
NuGet Package Manager in Visual Studio. For more information about NuGet, visit http://docs.nuget.org/.

PreEmptive Analytics Visualizer   1.2
Microsoft Visual Studio extension to visualize aggregated summaries from the PreEmptive Analytics product.

SQL Server Data Tools   12.0.30919.1
Microsoft SQL Server Data Tools

Visual Studio Spell Checker   VSSpellChecker
An editor extension that checks the spelling of comments, strings, and plain text as you type.

Windows Azure Mobile Services Tools   1.0
Windows Azure Mobile Services Tools

Windows Azure Remote Debugging   1.0
Windows Azure Remote Debugging Community Technology Preview

Windows Azure Tools   2.2
Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 - v2.2.11003.1601

Workflow Manager Tools 1.0   1.0
This package contains the necessary Visual Studio integration components for Workflow Manager.

Answer 1

And I'll go with the saddest answer of all time: Have you tried a full uninstall, reboot and re-install of Visual Studio?

This will also help if the issue is as a result of an add-in or similar.

I had a lot of issues with a clean install of VS2013 on win7 (projects not loading, crashes etc). A re-install sadly was the only thing that helped. This is poor advice I know but still sometimes one of the best fixes to some VS ills.

[EDIT] I am no fan of fixing up failed installs unless it breaks the same every time. Refer Connect Article (For VS2012 but same issue).

This Stack Overflow question may help with the crashes. The question is for VS2008 but it looks identical. Try and reset your fonts as suggested. (I think running Devenv /ResetSettings at a minimum is not a bad idea)

Answer 2

I do recommend to disable Resharper. From time to time I meet a VS solution which I can't open in VS2013 with enabled ReSharper.

Tools->Options->Resharper->Suspend Now