Visual Studio Installer Missing option value: InstallPath - Visual Studio 2019

Question

I have the visual studio 2019 enterprise edition (VS 2019 16.1.4) installed with valid license (Visual Studio Subscription) and it was working good.

All of sudden, when I try to open a project or any file that is part of the project, I am getting the following error.

So I tried to uninstall using the Visual Studio Uninstaller, when I selected uninstaller, it got updated automatically and when I open uninstaller now, it says

When I click Ok, it says You haven't installed anything yet and it only has the option to install VS 2019 16.2.0.

Even if I try to install VS 2019 16.2.0 , I see the error

"Visual Studio cannot be installed to a nonempty directory 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise'."

Kindly help me resolve the error.

Update

=====================
12-08-2019 06:31:09 PM
Recoverable
System.AggregateException: One or more errors occurred. ---> System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException: Element not found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070490)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Setup.Configuration.ISetupConfiguration.GetInstanceForCurrentProcess()
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.ProjectSystem.VS.DotNetCoreProjectCompatibilityDetector.<IsPrereleaseAsync>d__44.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.ProjectSystem.VS.DotNetCoreProjectCompatibilityDetector.<IsPreviewSDKInUseAsync>d__43.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.ProjectSystem.VS.DotNetCoreProjectCompatibilityDetector.<CheckCompatibilityAsync>d__47.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.ProjectSystem.VS.DotNetCoreProjectCompatibilityDetector.<<InitializeAsync>b__40_0>d.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.ProjectSystem.ProjectMultiThreadedService.<>c__DisplayClass32_1.<<Fork>b__0>d.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.ProjectSystem.CommonProjectSystemTools.Rethrow(Exception ex)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.ProjectSystem.ProjectErrorReporting.<>c__DisplayClass6_0.<SubmitErrorReport>b__0()
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.ProjectSystem.ExceptionFilter.<>c__DisplayClass2_0.<Guard>g__action|0()
   at GuardMethodClass.GuardMethod(Func`1 , Func`2 , Func`2 )
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
---> (Inner Exception #0) System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80070490): Element not found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070490)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Setup.Configuration.ISetupConfiguration.GetInstanceForCurrentProcess()
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.ProjectSystem.VS.DotNetCoreProjectCompatibilityDetector.<IsPrereleaseAsync>d__44.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.ProjectSystem.VS.DotNetCoreProjectCompatibilityDetector.<IsPreviewSDKInUseAsync>d__43.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.ProjectSystem.VS.DotNetCoreProjectCompatibilityDetector.<CheckCompatibilityAsync>d__47.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.ProjectSystem.VS.DotNetCoreProjectCompatibilityDetector.<<InitializeAsync>b__40_0>d.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.ProjectSystem.ProjectMultiThreadedService.<>c__DisplayClass32_1.<<Fork>b__0>d.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.ProjectSystem.CommonProjectSystemTools.Rethrow(Exception ex)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.ProjectSystem.ProjectErrorReporting.<>c__DisplayClass6_0.<SubmitErrorReport>b__0()
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.ProjectSystem.ExceptionFilter.<>c__DisplayClass2_0.<Guard>g__action|0()
   at GuardMethodClass.GuardMethod(Func`1 , Func`2 , Func`2 )<---

===================

I started to face this issue very frequently(twice a week) and the only solution was to reinstall every time. So downgraded VS to 2017 for now.

Answer 1

To uninstall the VS 2019, please follow the steps as below to clean up the installed VS and re-install it:

• See if you have this file on your machine: "%programfiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\resources\app\layout\InstallCleanup.exe"

• If so, please launch it from an admin command prompt with a -full param: InstallCleanup.exe -full

• If not, please manually delete the "%programfiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer” folder

• Relaunch the newly downloaded vs_enterprise.exe (or vs_professional.exe or vs_community.exe…)

• Allow the first step to install the installer

• Once the installer comes up and you can see workload choices (.net desktop and the like), close it

• Go launch the same InstallCleanup.exe to clean up old build of VS

• Then re-run the VS installer to install

Please then let us know if this works for you.