Alex Rivera | Logout

Visual Studio setup problem - 'A problem has been encountered while loading the setup components. Canceling setup.'

Asked 2008-09-22T11:30:01.160
153

I've had a serious issue with my Visual Studio 2008 setup. I receive the ever-so-useful error 'A problem has been encountered while loading the setup components. Canceling setup.' whenever I try to uninstall, reinstall or repair Visual Studio 2008 (team system version). If I can't resolve this issue I have no choice but to completely wipe my computer and start again which will take all day long! I've recently received very strange errors when trying to build projects regarding components running out of memory (despite having ~2gb physical memory free at the time) which has rendered my current VS install useless.

Note I installed VS2005 shell version using the vs_setup.msi file in the SQL Server folder after I had installed VS2008, in order to gain access to the SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services designer in Business Intelligence Development Studio (this is inexplicably unavailable in VS2008).

Does anyone have any solutions to this problem?

P.S.: I know this isn't directly related to programming, however I feel this is appropriate to SO as it is directly related to my ability to program at all!

Note: A colleague found a solution to this problem, hopefully this should help others with this problem.

visual-studio installation visual-studio-2008 visual-studio-2005
Edit
Report

5 Answers

151

A colleague found this MS auto-uninstall tool which has successfully uninstalled VS2008 for me and saved me hours of work!!

Hopefully this might be useful to others. Doesn't speak highly of MS's faith in their usual VS maintenance tools that they have to provide this as well!

answered 2008-09-22T13:13:28.573
6

Sure enough, for me, it was the hotfixes. In Add/Remove Programs, check the "Show Updates" box, and remove ALL of the Hotfixes associated with your version of VS2008. Then try the "Change/Remove" button - it should now proceed without a hitch.

Well, it did for me, anyway... ;-)

answered 2009-08-13T20:36:27.237
3

Uninstall hotfixes installed in related to vs2008 and then try again. It worked for me and hopefully it will for you as well.

Thanks, Zelalem

answered 2010-02-15T19:16:55.387
0

Thanks, riaraos, uninstalling KB952241 was the solution for me, too. Before doing that I tried to run the installer from "Programs and Features" and from the installation DVD without success. I did not want to completely remove the VS 2008 installation but only add a few components.

Notes on my system:

Windows 7 Beta 1 Visual Studio 2008 SP1

answered 2009-04-09T13:52:19.760
0

Okay I had the same issues first my VS2008 was acting up so i tried to uninstall it and it didn't work...I read online that using an AutoUninstall by MS will do the trick it did just that , but left a lot of nasty files behind..

So i used "Windows Install Clean Up" and cleaned up more stuff that had to do with VS.. then went back into Add and remove in control panel Removed the KB952241... then opened up Ccleaner and scanned the registry found a lot of left behind crap from VB2008 removed all that once that was done.

I went ahead and launch the installed back from the CD again and BAM its working.

I did all this without having to restart my PC..

Hope this helps people who are stuck..like i was

answered 2009-07-17T23:48:17.800

Your Answer