Visual Studio Not loading projects correctly

Question

I have used visual studio on my laptop for a couple of years now.

But recently something got messed up. And now, when I try to load and run projects (even console applications) my solution explorer doesn't load any items. And it always prompts me to "Attach To Process" when I try to run anything.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling it. I've tried using software to delete all traces of visual studio (Soft Organizer) and then reinstalled it to find it still has not returned to its default behavior.

I've only tried reinstalling the minimum package and tools to make sure one item isn't corrupting everything and I still get this.

Can anybody help? Has anybody seen this before?

Answer 1

Hello @John Granatino ,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum.

If this issue only appears on .NET based projects, instead of .NET Framework based projects(you can try to create new projects for testing), then you can try to close VS > search and open Edit the system environment variables > click Environment Variables > in System variables select Path > click Edit > check, if C:\Program Files\dotnet\ and C:\Program Files (x86)\dotnet\ both exist, make sure that C:\Program Files\dotnet\ locate higher than C:\Program Files (x86)\dotnet\. Also check if you have set any global.json file.

If this issue appears on every projects(.NET Framework and .NET based projects), please check following:

1. If you are using any extension/antivirus, try to stop/disable them temporarily and restart VS.
2. Try to run VS as administrator.
3. Did you change anything before this issue appeared like updating something, modifying some files and installing some programs?

Sincerely,

Tianyu

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