Visual Studio setup problem - 'A problem has been encountered while loading the setup components. Canceling setup.'

Question

I\'ve had a serious issue with my Visual Studio 2008 setup. I receive the ever-so-useful error \'A problem has been encountered while loading the setup components.

Answer 1

I think this sort of question is entirely appropriate to the forum, especially if an easy solution can be found, as would save others hours of pain.

Unfortunately I dont have the solution, but would suggest (if you haven't already)

1. Run FileMon to see if the installer is looking for specific files which are no longer there - this may give some clues.

2. Painful, but try uninstalling other apps based upon the VS shell (eg 2005) first.

Answer 2

Remove the following hot fixes and updates

• Update KB972221
• Hotfix KB973674
• Hotfix KB971091

Restart the PC and try to uninstall now. This worked for me without problems.

Answer 3

Thanks, riaraos, uninstalling KB952241 was the solution for me, too. Before doing that I tried to run the installer from "Programs and Features" and from the installation DVD without success. I did not want to completely remove the VS 2008 installation but only add a few components.

Notes on my system:

Windows 7 Beta 1 Visual Studio 2008 SP1

Answer 4

You should look for the MSI setup logs in the temp directory of your system. They will contain detailed inforamtion about why the setup failed. I had a similar installation problem with Visual Studio 2008 which I was able to resolve by studying the logs.