Question

I am using Visual Studio 2008 Express and I tried creating a simple console application to test it. When I try to compile it, it compiles fine, but when I try to run it, it complains about the absence of a manifest file. As far as I know, VStudio should create the manifest file automatically, but since it is a simple console application without any dependencies, I asked VS to create the application without a manifest. It didn’t change a thing. It kept asking for a manifest file saying that the application was supposed to have one. I remembered old bugs from the vshost process from previous VS Express versions so I tried disabling it. When I did, the error message changed to say that the application failed to load properly and would be closed, both with the option to create a manifest or not. I am pretty sure it is some misconfiguration on VS Express on my part, but I couldn’t really find where. Anyone had any similar problems?

Answer 1

I think you should just create the manifest file. It’s like 30 seconds to set up and I’m sure you have wasted much more time by googling and trying to solve the issue.

Here’s the MSDN article about assembly manifests (in .NET 3.5):

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1w45z383.aspx

EDIT & note for the person who downvoted this answer: This is a helpful answer, and I tell you why. When implementing software projects, sometimes we all make mistakes and waste a lot of time by trying do something in a way that just doesn’t make sense. It is a very important engineering skill to be able to realize that ‘I’m doing it wrong’ as early as possible and not try to force a non feasible solution.