Visual Studio 2012 Express is suddenly “incompatible with this version of Windows”?

100
votes

I'm running Visual Studio Express 2012 on Windows 7. I've been running it with no problems for several months now.

Last Friday, when I shut down my PC, a lot of Windows updates were installed. This morning, when I started up and opened a VS2012 solution, I got this error message:

This program has known compatibility issues

...

Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows Desktop is incompatible with this version of Windows.

There's a button for Run Program, and when I click it, the solution opens normally. I haven't changed anything about my Windows configuration. This happens every time I open a solution. Did MS release a flawed patch in the batch of updates that got applied last Friday?

EDIT: I'm not sure why people are voting to close this question. The answer that's been linked to isn't related to my issue; that answer seems to pertain to trying to open a VS2012 project in VS2010. I'm trying to open a VS2012 project in VS2012. If you really think that the question needs to be closed, please let me know why in the comments, so that I can change it appropriately.

The .NET updates installed on Friday were:

  • KB2805226
  • KB2805221
  • KB2804582

UPDATE: I gave up, more or less, and clicked the "Don't show this window again" checkbox on the error window. Visual Studio seems to be running ok.

6
visual-studio-2012
@Yvette: That's a different problem. – Robert Harvey
@Yvette: It's a completely different error message. How likely is it that it's the same problem? – Robert Harvey
Why the "off-topic" close votes? From the FAQ: "if your question generally covers…**software tools commonly used by programmers**" … – Peter Majeed
I see absolutely no justification either for closing this question as off-topic. As @PeterMajeed pointed out, it covers software tools commonly used by programmers, and so is certainly within the scope of the FAQ. Additionally, it was the first meaningful result in a Google search that I conducted for this very problem that actually even attempts to address it. – jammycakes
We are patiently waiting for somebody with this problem to install Update 2. It does seem to take an unusually long time to do the obvious thing. – Hans Passant

6 Answers

81
votes

I received the same message on Visual Studio 2012 Premium (on PC where Windows 7 re-installed in last month) - the suggested fix was "Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 (KB2781514)" which seems to have fixed it

www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36020

8
votes

Install Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 solved my problem. No previous update needed for this one. Here's the descriptions of the update.

(I'm using Windows 8, installed all important updates for Windows, then tried repair Visual Studio in Programs and Features, problem still here until installed Update 2.)

3
votes

I've been running VS2012 for about 2 weeks now since I clicked the "Don't show this window again" button. I haven't encountered any problems. For now I'm going to consider this an adequate solution.

1
votes

I've just installed VS2012 at home and came across the same problem. The 1st solution I found is that webdeploy doesn't work after Oct 2013 and I should install Web deploy V3.0.

Done that, no joy. I let Win7 search for compatibility solution on-line and it found an update patch (KB2781514) which did work.

This is the same solution as mentioned before by @John M.

Should've looked here first, just posting this again if someone comes across this again these days..

Thanks to all other users who helped with this thread.

0
votes

I had a similar problem with VS2012 awhile ago it was along the lines of:

"this solution has no errors and could potentially be damaged"

*yet still opened fine.

as far as fixing it went I performed a clean install of VS2012 and the error has not bugged me since in saying that I am probably out of date at this time and may find if I updated I would have the same issue.

Food for thought.

0
votes

Even i had the same problem on Windows 7 with Visual studio 2012.

Installed Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 -KB2781514 and it fixed the issue.

Note: "Just clicking on Run program was also opening up the solution file without any issues in my case."