Visual Studio 2015 - Stuck at Splash Screen

Question

I am trying to load VS2015 Pro Version (update 3) in Windows 10 and I have been fighting with this for a few days trying different things. When I launch it, I go to the white Visual Studio Splash Screen and it just hangs. This was seen a lot in VS2013 and apparently in VS2015 also but nothing has worked so far.

Anyone have a success story they can share?

Based on various sites, I have tried: 1.devenv.exe /safemode 2.devenv.exe /resetskippkgs 3.devenv.exe /installvstemplates 4.devenv.exe /resetsettings 5.devenv.exe /resetuserdata

I was able to run devenv.exe /resetsettings and I get in but I immediately have errors and then Visual Studio Locks and I can't click anything. When I click close on the popups I get an error that VS Stopped Working and I am in VS but it is locked. I am unable to click on anything.

Errors when I do get in:

  CommonAzureToolsPackage did not load correctly.
  Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Connected.ConnectedUser.ConnectedUserPackage  did not load correctly.

My ActivityLog.xml has this:

             <type>Error</type>
            <source>VisualStudio</source>
            <description>LegacySitePackage failed for package [Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Connected.ConnectedUser.ConnectedUserPackage]Source: &apos;Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Connected&apos; Description: Could not load file or assembly &apos;Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.Client, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a&apos; or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.&#x000D;&#x000A;System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly &apos;Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.Client, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a&apos; or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.&#x000D;&#x000A;File name: &apos;Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.Client, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a&apos;&#x000D;&#x000A;   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Connected.Common.CommonUtilities.CheckAndResetUserTokenStorage(IServiceProvider serviceProvider)&#x000D;&#x000A;   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Connected.ConnectedUser.ConnectedUserPackage.Initialize()&#x000D;&#x000A;   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Package.Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.IVsPackage.SetSite(IServiceProvider sp)&#x000D;&#x000A;&#x000D;&#x000A;WRN: Assembly binding logging is turned OFF.&#x000D;&#x000A;To enable assembly bind failure logging, set the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1.&#x000D;&#x000A;Note: There is some performance penalty associated with assembly bind failure logging.&#x000D;&#x000A;To turn this feature off, remove the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog].&#x000D;&#x000A;</description>
            <guid>{7F679D93-2EB6-47C9-85EB-F6AD16902662}</guid>
            <hr>80070002</hr>
            <errorinfo></errorinfo>
          </entry>
          <entry>
            <record>26</record>
            <time>2016/10/15 03:38:42.027</time>
            <type>Error</type>
            <source>VisualStudio</source>
            <description>SetSite failed for package [Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Connected.ConnectedUser.ConnectedUserPackage](null)</description>
            <guid>{7F679D93-2EB6-47C9-85EB-F6AD16902662}</guid>
            <hr>80070002</hr>
            <errorinfo></errorinfo>
          </entry>
          <entry>
            <record>27</record>
            <time>2016/10/15 03:38:42.042</time>
            <type>Error</type>
            <source>VisualStudio</source>
            <description>End package load        [Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Connected.ConnectedUser.ConnectedUserPackage]</description>
            <guid>{7F679D93-2EB6-47C9-85EB-F6AD16902662}</guid>
            <hr>80070002</hr>
            <errorinfo></errorinfo>

Answer 1

I had the same problem today with Visual Studio Enterprise 2015 (probably because I manually deleted the C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14 directory in between uninstalling and reinstalling Visual Studio.) I checked a working machine and found that my machine was missing the file Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.Client.dll in the following directories:

• C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\TeamFoundation\Team Explorer
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions\qngmizal.tmp

Note: The latter directory has a randomly generated name, but the directory can be identified by the presence of an extension.vsixmanifest file that contains the following element:

<Identity Id="Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.TeamExplorer.Extensions" Version="14.0.23102" Language="en-US" Publisher="Microsoft"/>

Update: As you correctly note, the first directory is actually a symbolic link to the second one.

Uninstalling and reinstalling Visual Studio didn't fix the problem. Repairing Visual Studio did.