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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-16T21:17:22+00:00

I’m running a .NET 2.0 executable with a .com extension from a command line

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I’m running a .NET 2.0 executable with a .com extension from a command line and receiving the following error:

System.BadImageFormatException : The module was expected to contain an assembly manifest. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131018)

I’m pretty sure it’s trying to load a DLL from the .NET 2.0 Global Assembly Cache.

I only get this error on machines with .net 4.0 / visual studio 2010 installed, so I’m assuming its using the wrong .net framework version to run.
Any ideas on how to confirm this assumption?

or is there a way to specify the program to use .net 2 runtime instead of .net 4 to run the .com file?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    If only the .NET 4.0 Framework is installed and you want to run an application build for/with .NET 2.0, you need to inform the .NET 4.0 Framework that the application requires the .NET 2.0 Runtime. That is done using a configuration file with the following entries.

    The necessary attribute to set is the useLegacyV2RuntimeActivationPolicy

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
 <startup useLegacyV2RuntimeActivationPolicy="true">
  <supportedRuntime version="v2.0.50727"/>
  <supportedRuntime version="v4.0.30319"/>
 </startup>
</configuration>
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