Fix for Expression Blend 4 crashing on startup

11 Replies

If you are among the many .NET developers who have recently installed Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview and are installing the recently released Windows Phone SDK 7.1 (Mango) RTW, you may find that Expression Blend 4 is crashing when you attempt to run it.  In fact, if you debug it you’ll find you are getting a System.ExecutionEngineException.  This is due to an issue in the .NET 4.5 version that was installed as part of VS11.  To get Blend back up and running you’ll need to run the following commands from the Command Prompt:

 %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ngen uninstall "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Expression\Blend 4\Microsoft.Expression.Framework.dll"
 %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ngen uninstall "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Expression\Blend 4\Microsoft.Expression.Blend.dll"
 %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ngen uninstall "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Expression\Blend 4\Microsoft.Expression.Project.dll"
 %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ngen uninstall "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Expression\Blend 4\Microsoft.Expression.WindowsPhone.dll"

Happy Blending!

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  • http://twitter.com/christosclick christos galousis

    I have the same error but with out VS2011. To run again the expressionblend I must install from begining the windows phone tools. Then the program starts normaly but if close the program and open again then i’ve got that error like you write above…. any solution??.. :/

  • Zasik

    Thank you so much!!! I have been freaking out because of this issue for few days. The most funny thing is that Blend right after setup was working correctly – it could start several times. However, after some time, even without reboot it just started crashing. Your solution worked like a charm – thanks!!!

  • http://twitter.com/fdevittori Francesco De Vittori

    Thanks! Worked fine!

  • Seriema

    Worked! Thanks mate.

  • slava

    Works, Mate, it is working again! Thanks so much and hi from Russia!

  • Kaki104

    thank you~ it is good work

  • http://www.actumeet.net Cecile Rencontre

    Good tips ;) I don’t understand all but i can try :) Thx and good week end !

  • Magiel van Gaalen

    Many Thanks, also from Holland!

  • eebee

    Great ! many thanks !

  • Raffi Maurer

    Thank you so much!!! This fix is an absolute life saver!! Thank you. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/egassert Eli Gassert

    I don’t even have 4.5 installed and this still fixed me up. It worked until I rebooted. Maybe next time I reboot it’ll bomb again. But for now, thank you :)