how to fix "The application is improperly formatted" error?

Question

I'm publishing an application that works fine on my computer (windows 10) but doesn't work on the target machine (windows 7)

i tried publishing without signing the ClickOnce manifest, I've set all the references copy local to true, I made sure that the target machine .NET version is the same, I have gone through all the similar topics on stack overflow and nothing has helped me.

Cannot continue. The application is improperly formatted. Contact the application vendor for assistance.

PLATFORM VERSION INFO
                Windows                                             : 6.1.7601.65536 (Win32NT)
                Common Language Runtime       : 4.0.30319.42000
                System.Deployment.dll                                : 4.7.3221.0 built by: NET472REL1LAST_C
                clr.dll                                     : 4.7.3394.0 built by: NET472REL1LAST_C
                dfdll.dll                                                 : 4.7.3221.0 built by: NET472REL1LAST_C
                dfshim.dll                                            : 4.0.41209.0 (Main.041209-0000)

SOURCES Deployment url : file:///I:/Systems/Systems%20Team/Piotr/USELESS/MBID.application

ERROR SUMMARY Below is a summary of the errors, details of these errors are listed later in the log. * Activation of I:\Systems\Systems Team\Piotr\USELESS\MBID.application resulted in exception. Following failure messages were detected: + Exception reading manifest from file:///I:/Systems/Systems%20Team/Piotr/USELESS/MBID.application: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. + Deployment manifest is not semantically valid. + Deployment manifest identity contains missing or unsupported processor architecture.

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION FAILURE SUMMARY No transaction error was detected.

WARNINGS There were no warnings during this operation.

OPERATION PROGRESS STATUS * [05/06/2019 12:34:14] : Activation of I:\Systems\Systems Team\Piotr\USELESS\MBID.application has started.

ERROR DETAILS Following errors were detected during this operation. * [05/06/2019 12:34:14] System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (ManifestParse) - Exception reading manifest from file:///I:/Systems/Systems%20Team/Piotr/USELESS/MBID.application: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. - Source: System.Deployment - Stack trace: at System.Deployment.Application.ManifestReader.FromDocument(String localPath, ManifestType manifestType, Uri sourceUri) at System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadDeploymentManifestDirectBypass(SubscriptionStore subStore, Uri& sourceUri, TempFile& tempFile, SubscriptionState& subState, IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options, ServerInformation& serverInformation) at System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadDeploymentManifestBypass(SubscriptionStore subStore, Uri& sourceUri, TempFile& tempFile, SubscriptionState& subState, IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options) at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivation(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl, Uri& deploymentUri) at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivationWithRetry(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl) --- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown --- at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw() at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivationWithRetry(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl) at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.ActivateDeploymentWorker(Object state) --- Inner Exception --- System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (ManifestSemanticValidation) - Deployment manifest is not semantically valid. - Source: System.Deployment - Stack trace: at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ValidateSemanticsForDeploymentRole() at System.Deployment.Application.ManifestReader.FromDocument(String localPath, ManifestType manifestType, Uri sourceUri) --- Inner Exception --- System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (InvalidManifest) - Deployment manifest identity contains missing or unsupported processor architecture. - Source: System.Deployment - Stack trace: at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ValidateSemanticsForDeploymentRole()

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION DETAILS No transaction information is available.

I need to get this thing working.

This looks like a clue: "Deployment manifest identity contains missing or unsupported processor architecture." — stuartd
Did you try to deploy a 64-bit application to a 32-bit machine? — Panagiotis Kanavos
@PanagiotisKanavos it's set to 'Any CPU' so should work on both apparently. I deployed many similar applications in this job and never had this problem before. — piotrb92
@piotrb92 the error comes from the installation package, not the executable. The error complains about a missing or unsupported processor architecture. Did you try to deploy to a 32-bit machine? It could be that the package targets x64 only — Panagiotis Kanavos
@PanagiotisKanavos thanks for the support, I will try that now and confirm if it helps. — piotrb92

piotrb92 piotrb92 · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-07T11:34:54

After publishing a version specifically for 32-bit machine, it worked with no errors as advised by Panagiotis Kanavos.

how to fix "The application is improperly formatted" error?

1 Answers