Root element is missing

Question

When I am trying to open a new project in Visual Studio Community 2015, VC++ templates, I am unable to open a new project. It says Unable to read the project file "projectname.vcxproj". And root element is missing. 

On clicking ok it says General Exception (Exception from HRESULT:0x80131500). I uninstalled it and again installed it. The problem remains the same. 

I am using windows 8.1, 64-bit OS. What is the reason and how can i rectify this problem.

Answer 1

Hi，

Did you install the visual studio successfully? Did you install the latest updates?

In order to provide better help, I help you move this case to visual studio forum. Hope you can understand.

May

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Answer 2

Hi,

Yes installed it successfully and the latest updates. 

Thank you. And i will post it in the visual studio forum.

Answer 3

Hi Mutharasi,

>>When I am trying to open a new project in Visual Studio Community 2015, VC++ templates, I am unable to open a new project. It says Unable to read the project file "projectname.vcxproj". And root element is missing. 

Just to make this issue clearly, do you mean that you couldn't create a simple VC++ project or couldn't open a previous existent VC++ project？

A. If you mean that you couldn't open previous project, please check it using the following steps:

(1) Please check that whether it is related to the files <proj>.vcxproj.user or <proj>.vcxproj.filters

Reference:

http://msbiztalk.blogspot.jp/2010/10/visual-studio-error-imported-project.html

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2739788/vcxproj-file-wont-load-into-solution

(2) Create a blank solution, and then add project files to the new blank solution, clean and rebuild your project, check it again. Maybe certain project files are corrupt, create a new one would be better.

(3) Another possible reason is that your current VS didn't install all packages which support this specific project type, you could share us the real project type you created before.

B. If a simple new project still has this issue, I think we would think about the VS setup.

Please check the SHA-1 value and make sure that it is not the setp up file issue.

https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/downloads/visual-studio-2015-iso-sha1-vs.aspx

Or you could share us the detailed setup log messages.

Best Regards,

Jack

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Answer 4

Hi Jack 

The thing is I am unable to create a new project itself. So I couldn't create any new project and open the existing project in VC++.

Thanks,

Mutharasi

Answer 5

Hi Mutharasi,

If you couldn't create a simple VC++ project, I think it would be the setup issue.

Could you create other project type like VC# or VB? Did it work well before when you open it for the first time?

Open the folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\, check ProjectTemplates, ItemTemplates and their children folders, make sure that it has all project templates there, you could delete the ItemTemplatesCache, ProjectTemplatesCache folder and then run the command line: 
devenv /InstallVSTemplates
devenv /Setup

Re-open your VS as the admin or in safe mode, check it again.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms241278.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

If still no help, you'd better to re-download the setup file from the official site, and re-install it again. Please use the custom setup option and enable all VC++ packages in the setup wizard.

Best Regards,

Jack

---

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