My Visual Studio isn't loading projects correctly; they appear as "Miscellaneous Files," and the option to configure startup is missing. What should I do?

Question

My Visual Studio isn't loading projects correctly; they appear as "Miscellaneous Files," and the option to configure startup is missing. What should I do?

Mikey Mann 20

Hello,

I'm encountering a persistent issue with Visual Studio where all projects I create or open are categorized under "Miscellaneous Files" and don't properly load in the Solution Explorer. Additionally, the "Configure Start Up Options" is empty, hindering my ability to run projects.

Steps Taken:

Running Visual Studio as administrator.
Resetting Visual Studio settings.
Repairing the Visual Studio installation.
Complete uninstallation and reinstallation of Visual Studio.

None of these steps have resolved the issue. I'm seeking advice on fixing this problem and getting my projects correctly loaded and running in Visual Studio.

Thank you so much for your help.

Mikey Mann 20 Reputation points

2024-01-08T19:37:20.49+00:00

PS: for pitty points today is the day after my birthday and I wanted to work on making a video game with my friends but this glitch turned into a fruitless day-long issue
Viorel 122.6K Reputation points

2024-01-08T19:46:35.0066667+00:00

How to reproduce the problem creating a new project? What kind of project and language are you using?
Mikey Mann 20 Reputation points

2024-01-08T20:03:19.5266667+00:00

C#, my friend was following the exact same steps and it worked for them but not me
Mikey Mann 20 Reputation points

2024-01-08T20:08:13.1666667+00:00

I downloaded the program for the first time and i used the C# and unity plugins.
Mikey Mann 20 Reputation points

2024-01-09T01:00:27.75+00:00

I uploaded the python plugin and that works fine actually. It's specifically the C# that isnt working, could that be the .NET is bad?

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Mikey Mann 20 Reputation points

2024-01-08T19:37:20.49+00:00

PS: for pitty points today is the day after my birthday and I wanted to work on making a video game with my friends but this glitch turned into a fruitless day-long issue
Viorel 122.6K Reputation points

2024-01-08T19:46:35.0066667+00:00

How to reproduce the problem creating a new project? What kind of project and language are you using?
Mikey Mann 20 Reputation points

2024-01-08T20:03:19.5266667+00:00

C#, my friend was following the exact same steps and it worked for them but not me
Mikey Mann 20 Reputation points

2024-01-08T20:08:13.1666667+00:00

I downloaded the program for the first time and i used the C# and unity plugins.
Mikey Mann 20 Reputation points

2024-01-09T01:00:27.75+00:00

I uploaded the python plugin and that works fine actually. It's specifically the C# that isnt working, could that be the .NET is bad?

Answer 1

Tianyu Sun-MSFT 34,441 Microsoft External Staff

Hello @Mikey Mann ,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum.

Please firstly try to search "Edit the system environment variables" in Windows Search box, click to open it => Environment Variables… => under System variables => select Path => Edit… => move up and make sure that C:\Program Files\dotnet\ lists higher than C:\Program Files (x86)\dotnet\ => relaunch VS.

Besides, please try to create a .NET Framework based project and check if it works, for example, .NET Framework 4.7.2/4.8 project. The project template you selected should be .NET currently.

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Best Regards,

Tianyu

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Mikey Mann 20 Reputation points

2024-01-09T18:07:21.0166667+00:00

I followed the path you described and the only dotnet is %USERPROFILE%\.dotnet\tools. Both C:\Program Files\dotnet\ and C:\Program Files (x86)\dotnet\ were not present in the edit environment variables. So I added them and placed them in the correct order. However, it didn't fix the issue. I also did as you asked and tried the .NET framework and that seems to work just fine.
Mikey Mann 20 Reputation points

2024-01-11T00:47:49.61+00:00

Hello?
Tianyu Sun-MSFT 34,441 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2024-01-11T02:49:41.0766667+00:00

Hi @Mikey Mann ,

I’m not sure if .NET has been installed successfully on your side. Sounds it wasn’t correctly installed, or the corresponding(default) path has been modified.

You can try to open CMD(Press Win+R, and type cmd, press Enter), run dotnet --info command. Check the information about the installed and using .NET SDK version and path. Please also share us corresponding screenshot to check the dotnet information that you see in CMD.

If possible, it’s recommended to try to separately download and install 64 bit .NET from here: download .NET(before installing it, please remove the path that you manually added into the environment variables).
Mikey Mann 20 Reputation points

2024-01-11T10:16:44.7866667+00:00

I downloaded the link, and now it works! Thank you so much!!! You helped me fix it! Now I'm gonna hack the moon mwuahahahaha!!
Tianyu Sun-MSFT 34,441 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2024-01-12T03:45:20.97+00:00

Hi @Mikey Mann ,

I'm also very happy to hear that it works.

Please feel free to contact us if you get any VS related issues in the future.

Have a great day:)

Kind Regards,

Tianyu

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My Visual Studio isn't loading projects correctly; they appear as "Miscellaneous Files," and the option to configure startup is missing. What should I do?

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