Visual Studio MVC Platforms - x86 and x64?

Question

We had quite an annoying issue that started about a month ago, where we could add a controller in an MVC project which required automatic code generation/scaffolding.

We figured out today that it was something to do with the platform. Originally, it was set to Any CPU which to me seems the correct setting. However, we set it to x86 as the version of Visual Studio we have is 32-Bit, and we were able to add controllers again. Added a controller, built, and went to view the application and it gives the following error:

Could not load file or assembly 'Dashboard' or one of its dependencies. An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format. Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.BadImageFormatException: Could not load file or assembly 'Dashboard' or one of its dependencies. An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format.

Source Error: 


 An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.  

Assembly Load Trace: The following information can be helpful to determine why the assembly 'Dashboard' could not be loaded.



WRN: Assembly binding logging is turned OFF.
To enable assembly bind failure logging, set the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1.
Note: There is some performance penalty associated with assembly bind failure logging.
To turn this feature off, remove the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog].



Stack Trace: 



[BadImageFormatException: Could not load file or assembly 'Dashboard' or one of its dependencies. An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format.]
   System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly._nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, RuntimeAssembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, IntPtr pPrivHostBinder, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean suppressSecurityChecks) +0
   System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.InternalLoadAssemblyName(AssemblyName assemblyRef, Evidence assemblySecurity, RuntimeAssembly reqAssembly, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, IntPtr pPrivHostBinder, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean suppressSecurityChecks) +210
   System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.InternalLoad(String assemblyString, Evidence assemblySecurity, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, IntPtr pPrivHostBinder, Boolean forIntrospection) +242
   System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.InternalLoad(String assemblyString, Evidence assemblySecurity, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean forIntrospection) +17
   System.Reflection.Assembly.Load(String assemblyString) +35
   System.Web.Configuration.CompilationSection.LoadAssemblyHelper(String assemblyName, Boolean starDirective) +122

[ConfigurationErrorsException: Could not load file or assembly 'Dashboard' or one of its dependencies. An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format.]
   System.Web.Configuration.CompilationSection.LoadAssemblyHelper(String assemblyName, Boolean starDirective) +12480704
   System.Web.Configuration.CompilationSection.LoadAllAssembliesFromAppDomainBinDirectory() +499
   System.Web.Configuration.AssemblyInfo.get_AssemblyInternal() +131
   System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.GetReferencedAssemblies(CompilationSection compConfig) +331
   System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.CallPreStartInitMethods(String preStartInitListPath, Boolean& isRefAssemblyLoaded) +148
   System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.ExecutePreAppStart() +172
   System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.Initialize(ApplicationManager appManager, IApplicationHost appHost, IConfigMapPathFactory configMapPathFactory, HostingEnvironmentParameters hostingParameters, PolicyLevel policyLevel, Exception appDomainCreationException) +1151

[HttpException (0x80004005): Could not load file or assembly 'Dashboard' or one of its dependencies. An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format.]
   System.Web.HttpRuntime.FirstRequestInit(HttpContext context) +12601936
   System.Web.HttpRuntime.EnsureFirstRequestInit(HttpContext context) +159
   System.Web.HttpRuntime.ProcessRequestNotificationPrivate(IIS7WorkerRequest wr, HttpContext context) +12441597

We then need to set it to x64 or Any CPU to view the project in the browser, but it then stops us adding controllers again.

Does anyone know what settings we should be using? It started out of the blue and we don't really want to be swapping and changing between the Platforms depending on what we're doing, as it should really work on Any CPU surely?

Answer 1

If you're running the site on IIS, then this might be what you're missing:

You need to enable it for your application pool if your application is built for x86.