Unable to locate the extensions directory. 'ExternalSettingsManager::GetScopePaths failed to initialize...'

2
votes

Trying to create a hello world VSix project in VS2017 15.4.3. I added nothing to the base project generated by VS. When attempt to build I get the error:

Unable to locate the extensions directory. "ExternalSettingsManager::GetScopePaths failed to initialize PkgDefManager for C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe".

I've cleaned/rebuilt the project and cleared temp files. Running Win7 x64. Also running VS2015 and VS2013.

1
visual-studio-2017vsix

1 Answers

0
votes

If anyone encounters this error with VS 2017 and above, you might want to check if you have appended the VS2017 private registry hive to your Windows registry in the past

(C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\15.0_xxxxx\privateregistry.bin)

If you have, you might need to remove the hive before compiling the extension, this fixed the problem for me.