Friday, April 20, 2012

Nerdiest Post On MarriedGeeks EVER

posted by He Said

So yeah, I have been really slacking about blogging lately.  Now I know I can blog using the web interface with blogger, but I use Live Writer.

Since December 11 of last year I have been receiving this annoying error.

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Writer\WindowsLiveWriter.exe"
The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log for more detail.

And it has stumped me for months.  I have been googling and googling and I even tried binging a few times.  What did I find? Forum post after forum post of people with similar errors for all sorts of windows applications.

Tonight I found a post that went into this workaround.  Run the program, find the error in the application error logs, edit the XML file (WindowsLiveWriter.exe.config) and it is supposed to magically work.  Now he failed to say what exactly I was supposed to put in this XML file.

So I followed the steps and event viewer gave me this REALLY insightful message.

Activation context generation failed for "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Writer\WindowsLiveWriter.exe".Error in manifest or policy file "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Writer\WindowsLiveWriter.exe.Config" on line 1. Invalid Xml syntax.

Great.  Line one is fucked up.  Helpful.

So I opened the WindowsLiveWriter.exe.config file (not for the first time ever mind you, because I CAN read the error message), and what do I find in it?

One line.  One miserable line that reads:

<configuration>

Wow.  So in a fit of angry passion I deleted the file.  That’s right, I just flat out nuked it.  Then I double clicked the applications EXE expecting a big middle finger.

Instead, the program runs, it doesn’t create a new .config file and here I am ranting about it.

Tomorrow I will rant about the Republicans since I have so much pent up frustration I am sure that is why I just deleted the config file without a care in the world.

If I could only delete Republicans that piss me off so easily.

2 comments:

  1. A bold move, indeed. Did you at least make a backup of the config file before you deleted it?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey, thanks! My fresh Live Writer install was giving me the same error, and deleting the config file did the trick.

    ReplyDelete