Visual Studio 2015 enterprise crashes on startup, uninstall and repair

Question

How can I fix Visual Studio 2015 Enterprise Edition to install and work correctly?

During the installation, it had an issue installing Java SE. It was optional so I didn't think anything of it. I restarted my computer. Now whenever I try to open Visual Studio 2015, reinstall or uninstall, I see the logo briefly then it disappears.

I dug into the event viewer to find a message from Windows Error Reporting that points to a log in the following folder.

C:\users\{me}\AppData\Local\Temp\dd_vs_enterprise_20150720190843

It seems as though it's having difficulty creating the view. I have copied a portion of the log below.

[261C:12FC][2015-07-20T19:08:52]i000: MUX:  Detect Completed
[261C:12FC][2015-07-20T19:08:52]i000: MUX:  Wait for View to be loaded
[261C:1860][2015-07-20T19:08:52]i000: MUX:  Detect Completed, now create view
[261C:1860][2015-07-20T19:08:52]e000: MUX:  ERROR: The type initializer for 'System.Windows.Media.FontFamily' threw an exception.
[261C:1860][2015-07-20T19:08:52]e000: MUX:  Stack:    at System.Windows.Media.Typeface..ctor(FontFamily fontFamily, FontStyle style, FontWeight weight, FontStretch stretch)
   at MS.Internal.Text.DynamicPropertyReader.GetTypeface(DependencyObject element)
   at MS.Internal.Text.TextProperties.InitCommon(DependencyObject target)
   at MS.Internal.Text.TextProperties..ctor(FrameworkElement target, Boolean isTypographyDefaultValue)
   at System.Windows.Controls.TextBlock.GetLineProperties()
   at System.Windows.Controls.TextBlock.EnsureTextBlockCache()
   at System.Windows.Controls.TextBlock.MeasureOverride(Size constraint)
   at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.MeasureCore(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.UIElement.Measure(Size availableSize)
   at MS.Internal.Helper.MeasureElementWithSingleChild(UIElement element, Size constraint)
   at System.Windows.Controls.ContentPresenter.MeasureOverride(Size constraint)
   at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.MeasureCore(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.UIElement.Measure(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.Controls.Control.MeasureOverride(Size constraint)
   at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.MeasureCore(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.UIElement.Measure(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.Controls.StackPanel.MeasureOverride(Size constraint)
   at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.MeasureCore(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.UIElement.Measure(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.Controls.Grid.MeasureCell(Int32 cell, Boolean forceInfinityV)
   at System.Windows.Controls.Grid.MeasureCellsGroup(Int32 cellsHead, Size referenceSize, Boolean ignoreDesiredSizeU, Boolean forceInfinityV)
   at System.Windows.Controls.Grid.MeasureOverride(Size constraint)
   at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.MeasureCore(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.UIElement.Measure(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.Controls.Border.MeasureOverride(Size constraint)
   at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.MeasureCore(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.UIElement.Measure(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.Controls.Grid.MeasureOverride(Size constraint)
   at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.MeasureCore(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.UIElement.Measure(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.Controls.Border.MeasureOverride(Size constraint)
   at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.MeasureCore(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.UIElement.Measure(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.Controls.Grid.MeasureOverride(Size constraint)
   at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.MeasureCore(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.UIElement.Measure(Size availableSize)
   at MS.Internal.Helper.MeasureElementWithSingleChild(UIElement element, Size constraint)
   at System.Windows.Controls.ContentPresenter.MeasureOverride(Size constraint)
   at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.MeasureCore(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.UIElement.Measure(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.Controls.Decorator.MeasureOverride(Size constraint)
   at System.Windows.Documents.AdornerDecorator.MeasureOverride(Size constraint)
   at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.MeasureCore(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.UIElement.Measure(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.Controls.Border.MeasureOverride(Size constraint)
   at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.MeasureCore(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.UIElement.Measure(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.Window.MeasureOverrideHelper(Size constraint)
   at System.Windows.Window.MeasureOverride(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.MeasureCore(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.UIElement.Measure(Size availableSize)
   at System.Windows.Interop.HwndSource.SetLayoutSize()
   at System.Windows.Interop.HwndSource.set_RootVisualInternal(Visual value)
   at System.Windows.Interop.HwndSource.set_RootVisual(Visual value)
   at System.Windows.Window.SetRootVisual()
   at System.Windows.Window.SetupInitialState(Double requestedTop, Double requestedLeft, Double requestedWidth, Double requestedHeight)
   at System.Windows.Window.CreateSourceWindowImpl()
   at System.Windows.Window.SafeCreateWindow()
   at System.Windows.Window.ShowHelper(Object booleanBox)
   at System.Windows.Window.Show()
   at Microsoft.Devdiv.Bootstrapper.ManagedUx.RunUI(ViewModelCommonUi viewModel)
   at Microsoft.Devdiv.Bootstrapper.ManagedUx.InternalRun()
   at Microsoft.Devdiv.Bootstrapper.ManagedUx.Run()
   at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart_Context(Object state)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
   at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart()
[261C:1860][2015-07-20T19:08:52]e000: MUX:  Exception: Info: InnerException: Info:
[261C:1860][2015-07-20T19:08:52]e000: MUX:  ERROR: The type initializer for 'MS.Internal.FontCache.Util' threw an exception.
[261C:1860][2015-07-20T19:08:52]e000: MUX:  Stack:    at System.Windows.Media.FontFamily.PreCreateDefaultFamilyCollection()
   at System.Windows.Media.FontFamily..cctor()
[261C:1860][2015-07-20T19:08:52]i000: MUX:  Metrics: ShouldSendData=True
[261C:1860][2015-07-20T19:08:52]i000: MUX:  Permission to upload: Yes
[261C:1860][2015-07-20T19:08:52]i000: MUX:  Preparing to serialize data.
[261C:1860][2015-07-20T19:08:52]i000: MUX:  Data serialized.
[261C:1860][2015-07-20T19:08:52]i000: MUX:  Number of SQM File queued: 1
[261C:1860][2015-07-20T19:09:14]i000: MUX:  SQM sent: True
[261C:1860][2015-07-20T19:09:14]i000: Setting string variable 'CEIPConsent' to value ''
[261C:1860][2015-07-20T19:09:14]i000: Setting string variable 'SqmOption' to value ''
[261C:1860][2015-07-20T19:09:14]i000: MUX:  Metrics: Configuration State

Answer 1

After quite a bit of research, I found two issues that were causing my installation and repair issues.

Font Oddity in the Registry

1. Open the registry
2. Go to the font location in the registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontCache
3. There was a particular font in my case, MT Extra (TTF), which had a long path rather than a filename like the rest of the fonts.
4. I changed the font name to be just the filename MTEXTRA.TFF
5. Restarted my computer

PATH longer than 2048 characters

1. I checked the path to find that it was longer than 2048 characters
2. This is a known issue (even if difficult to diagnose)
3. Removed certain entries to bring it down to less than 2048 characters
4. Restarted

After completing both of these steps, I was able to repair from Programs and Features in the control panel and have a working installation.

Answer 2

I had what seems like the same issue, this is what I did:

1. Cleared everything out of %temp%, which on my machine is "C:\Users[user name]\AppData\Local\Temp"
2. Rebooted my machine.
3. Cleared the rest of the locked files out of %temp% after reboot (this can probably be one step after reboot, but that's the order I went in).
4. Deleted all the "Roboto" Fonts in my Android SDK folder for the highest version installed. For me, the highest version was android-17: C:\Users[user name]\AppData\Local\Android\android-sdk\platforms\android-17\data\fonts

Note that "Roboto-Bold.ttf" font was still in use even after reboot, so I didn't delete it. But the problem went away with all the others deleted.

Hope that helps...

Answer 3

I had a similar issue, and tried the other solutions to no avail. I even repaired the installation but that had no effect. I was able to resolve it by resetting all the user settings.

Navigate to the devenv.exe file; for me it was in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\.

Then open a command prompt there and run:

devenv.exe /ResetSettings