Installing SMSS 18 fails after splash screen

Question

I'm trying to install the latest SMSS version on Win 10.
I also had Visual studio 2017 and Visual Studio 2019 Community, and all .Net runtimes and the DevExpress Framework which came also with some versions of .Net.

The setup shows the splash screen then does nothing.
I uninstalled DevExpress, all Visual Studios, all older .net runtimes, reinstalled .Net 4.8 (from Turn Windows features on and off), nothing changes.

.Net 4.8 is instaled and reported in registry.

In application log I get 2 related errors:
First one, a .Net error:

Application: SSMS-Setup-ENU.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.NullReferenceException
at Microsoft.Sql.DataTools.ManagedBootstrapperApp.ManagedBootstrapperApp+<>c__DisplayClassb.<LogUserEnvironmentInfoInBackground>b__a(System.Object)
at System.Threading.QueueUserWorkItemCallback.WaitCallback_Context(System.Object)
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object, Boolean)
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object, Boolean)
at System.Threading.QueueUserWorkItemCallback.System.Threading.IThreadPoolWorkItem.ExecuteWorkItem()
at System.Threading.ThreadPoolWorkQueue.Dispatch()
at System.Threading._ThreadPoolWaitCallback.PerformWaitCallback()

Second one:

Faulting application name: SSMS-Setup-ENU.exe, version: 15.0.18384.0, time stamp: 0x52974fc4
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x04032007
Faulting process ID: 0x1358
Faulting application start time: 0x01d76a096318e069
Faulting application path: C:\Users\geo\Downloads\SSMS-Setup-ENU.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report ID: 7c90bf4e-9c0f-436a-9216-618c3308529f
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Hi George-2791.

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A.
According to this feedback, this issue may be caused by a corrupted WMI repository.

Program Accessories/System Tools/System Information was unable to display information, confirming the WMI repository was corrupt.
I navigated to C:\Windows\System32\wbem\repository and it listed filenames with prefix “corrupt”.
Solution: Rebuild the WMI repository.

Please try to rebuild the WMI repository. Please refer to How to repair or rebuild the WMI Repository on Windows 10 and WMI: Repository Corruption, or Not which might help.

Best Regards,
Amelia

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