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I cannot open my Visual Studio Installer

Holt 0 Reputation points
2026-02-27T08:24:51.88+00:00

Dear programers,

I see this when i open it .Actually i think that is because i deleted the Programdata fews ago. Now i find that the VS cannot be used .So i finally uninstalled it by InstallCleanup.exe .Now every time I open the Installer I will see the situation as the picture.

I had talked to service in support.microsoft.com .However, they cannot solve it either. Please help me solve the problems! Dear programers.User's image

Developer technologies | Visual Studio | Setup
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  1. Leon Tran (WICLOUD CORPORATION) 1,575 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-03-02T08:44:51.6566667+00:00

    Hi Holt,

    Thank you for sending us your concern.

    If ProgramData is accidentally deleted, Visual Studio may not work correctly even after reinstallation, because the new installation can reuse leftover cache files or old registry entries. This can result in a corrupted launch.

    First, I recommend running InstallCleanup.exe again to completely uninstall and remove all Visual Studio instances.

    Next, go to Control Panel and verify that Visual Studio has been fully uninstalled. After that, manually delete the following folders (if they still exist):

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio %ProgramData%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\Packages


    Then, open Regedit.exe and carefully delete only the registry keys related to Visual Studio:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\VisualStudio\Setup HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\Setup HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\Setup

    These registry keys are created during the first time installation and may be the root cause of the corrupted Visual Studio launch.

    Note: 

    These steps are provided for troubleshooting only, please back up the Windows Registry before making any changes. Incorrect deletion or modification may cause system issues or data loss, and you proceed at your own responsibility. 

    Hope this helps! If my answer was helpful - kindly follow the instructions here so others with the same problem can benefit as well. 


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