Troubleshooting .NET Framework parser error after upgrade to Windows 8
After upgrading from Windows 7 Ultimate to Windows 8 Pro, I encountered buggy behavior of several of applications based on .NET Framework 2.0/3.5. Apparently, the error manifested itself in a way that the apps didn’t want to run properly and were failing with error “Error parsing C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Config\machine.config. Parser returned error 0xC00CE556”. I didn’t paying attention on this until it happened when I tried to install Visual Studio 2012 – installer simply wouldn’t start.
Wisdom of internet didn’t give me proper answer, nor I couldn’t find any answer on Microsoft Answers website. Some of things I tried were:
Using sfc / scannnow
Changing machine.config permissions
So, in the end I found this blog post http://e3fi389.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/windows-8-cp-error-parsing-cwindowsmicrosoft-netframeworkv2-0-50727configmachine-config-parser-returned-error-0xc00ce556/ that is explaining the troubleshooting of the error. Procedure is as follows:
Rename machine.config to machine.config. old
Copy machine.config.default and rename the copy to machine.config
and afterwards everything works. You need to confirm the rename, because this is system-related folder and you will have UAC prompt asking you for confirmation.
I was sure that I resolved the issue, and I was very happy with that, so I started installing Visual Studio 2012 on my machine. But, installer would simply fail after installing several packages with message “Fatal error during installation”. After several tries, I found the same error buried in the install log, but with path to x64 machine.config. I repeated the procedure, and the install succeeded.
I hope that this blog post will help you resolve the issue, but you can also visit source of this wisdom http://e3fi389.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/windows-8-cp-error-parsing-cwindowsmicrosoft-netframeworkv2-0-50727configmachine-config-parser-returned-error-0xc00ce556/.
Until next time
-Dragan
