'Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Opening Error

I installed SQL Server Management Studio and it worked fine. After that I updated my Visual Studio from 2010 to 2013 Express edition, now it is not working with this error message :

Cannot find one or more components. Please re install the application

I re-installed it but still same issue. Any suggestion?



Solution 1:[1]

I just solved the issue : SSMS depends on VS 2010 and by uninstalling it this error occurred.

  • There is a folder named 1033_enu in my server installation pakage
  • Inside that i found a folder VSS i.e Visual studio shell
  • and inside that VVS setup. i just run this setup and it solved the problem for me. Thank you

Solution 2:[2]

The SQL Server 2014 Management Studio answer

SSMS 2014 relies upon the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Shell (Isolated) Redistributable Package. If this is uninstalled, SSMS will produce the error message 'Cannot find one or more components. Please re install the application'. This can be corrected by:

  1. Reinstalling the VS 2010 Shell from here: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/older-downloads/isolated-shell/
  2. Try opening SSMS again. If it still gives the error, then:
  3. Run Repair in SQL Server (2014) Setup

The SQL Server 2016 Management Studio answer

SSMS 2016 relies upon the Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Shell (Isolated) Redistributable Package. If this is uninstalled, SSMS will produce the error message 'Cannot find one or more components. Please re install the application'. This can be corrected by reinstalling VS 2015 or by installing the Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Shell (Isolated) Redistributable Package.

Solution 3:[3]

For SSMS 2016 (at least v16.5.3) delete the following folder from the registry and restart the app:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\SQL Server Management Studio\13.0_Config

Solution 4:[4]

The SQL Server 2017 Management Studio answer

SSMS 17.1 also depends on Visual Studio 2015 shell (isolated). I had to repair the Shell to get SSMS to work. In case someone is looking for VS 2015 Shell: LINK

If you cannot find the installer using the above link, the SSMS 17.x installer HERE includes the VS 2015 Shell.

Scott Hanselman has also conveniently included a link to every (>= 2008 R2) Express and SSMS version here: LINK

Solution 5:[5]

I had this same issue happen to me when I was stripping my machine of everything Microsoft to refresh my system with 2016-2017 versions of Microsoft products.. First time doing this so I deleted the Visual Studio shell and installed everything 2017 except the 2015 VS shell (not sure if 2017 is out), here was my mistake.

To solve.. first off, make sure you have the Visual Studio Isolated Shell installed. Certain versions of SSMS need a specific version of the shell. My situation called for VS Shell 2015 with my SSMS 2016..

Just installing and repairing the Shell didn't help me completely fix the error. What helped me was deleting a key from my Registry Editor. Run the command regedit from anywhere on your machine and then find:

'HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/SQL Server Management Studio/*shellversion*_Config'

Right-click and delete this folder/key. For SSMS 2016 I deleted 13.0_Config.. Right away I was able to open SSMS as usual.

Solution 6:[6]

In order to free up some space on my disk, I had uninstalled some programs after which I started getting this error.

I followed all the solutions here, but it didn't fix my problem.

For me, after installing the Visual Studio Shell, I had to delete a key from my registry by following the steps here. Then finally my SSMS started working again.

Quoting from the page:

  1. Start regedit.exe
  2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\SQL Server Management Studio
  3. Delete 13.0_Config
  4. Restart ssms.exe

Solution 7:[7]

All the answers here didn't work for me (SQL Server 2014).

What worked was:

1) Uninstall the Visual Studio 2010 Shell using official installer (not via Programs and Features). The file VSIsoShell.exe can be downloaded here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=1366

2) Once uninstalled, run SQL Server Installation and hit Repair

Solution 8:[8]

Try running SSMS as administrator! After repairing & re-installing multiple components, in the end it was just the security level of my account.

Solution 9:[9]

I resolved the problem with SQL Management Studio 2016 by running the VS setup, selecting "Modify" and then installing Extensibility Tools Update 3. After that I just ran SQL Management Studio 2016 and it reset VS Isolated Shell

Solution 10:[10]

For all versions of SQL Server, this can be fixed safely with no loss of data including any plugins that may be installed and their data.

This is a common bug, and the solution in all versions of SQL Server is to repair the 'Microsoft Visual Studio 20xx Shell (Isolated)' program installation, which takes about 30 minutes to run unattended.

To perform the repair, please complete the following steps:

  1. Close all instances of Visual Studio.
  2. Press the Windows key.
  3. Type 'Programs'.
  4. Click 'Add or Remove Programs' from the list that appears.
  5. Type 'Shell' into the Search box that appears.
  6. Click 'Microsoft Visual Studio 20xx Shell (Isolated)'*
  7. Click Modify (If greyed out then click Uninstall).
  8. In the window that appears, click 'Repair'.
  9. Wait 30mins or so for repair to complete.
  10. Restart machine.

'Microsoft Visual Studio 20xx Shell (Isolated)' will now be repaired and SQL Server Management Studio should open as normal.

* If there are multiple version(s) of 'Microsoft Visual Studio 20xx Shell (Isolated)' installed, then repair the latest one first, working backwards through versions until the correct program is repaired. Be sure to make a note of the version that fixed your version of SQL Server for future reference as it will not change until smss or vs is upgraded.

Solution 11:[11]

I have the same issue after using the custom VS2015 uninstallation tool and installing the VS2017. Repair or reinstall of the SSMS 17.3 does not solve the issue.

To resolve it open the Windows Control panel, select the Programs and Features. Select the Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Shell (Isolated) from the list and click Change. Then click Repair in the VS setup window. On setup completed ignor the warnings about some newer components already installed. Click Close and thats it! SSMS starts perfect! Hope this save someone's time.

Solution 12:[12]

I downloaded VSIsoShell.exe but could not install it. When i deep dive in to error logs the reason is newer version of visual studio exists on the system. I uninstalled vs2017 community then installation of VSIsoShell is successful

Solution 13:[13]

Download and Install Visual Studio 2015 Isolated Shell.

You can further read the details of this Redistributable Package from Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Redistributable Package

You can further Download this Package from this link

After Installing this package, Please run SSMS for SQL SERVER 2016. It actually works for me!

Solution 14:[14]

Just in case none of the registry edits or software reinstalls mentioned in the other answers work for you, I was having this issue due to anti-virus. In this case it was Crowdstrike, but others can cause it as well.

Try disabling your AV to test, and if that's the culprit, put an exception in for SSMS 2014/2016.

Solution 15:[15]

None of above solutions worked for me , Link in the accepted answer is not working.

So I tried repairing MSSQL 2014 from Setup , This will install Visual Studio Shell which it depends on.

SQL Server Installation Center -> Maintenance -> Repair -> Select the Instance

Next , You will be able to run ssms without an issue.

Hope that works,

Solution 16:[16]

I finally got this to work - open up "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\120\Tools\Binn\RSConfigTool.exe" then used the repair tools in there, rather than from the control panel install programs (repair).
This seemed to run through reinstalling of files and afterwards everything worked great! I was tearing my hair out!

Solution 17:[17]

I uninstalled already existing microsoft visual studio 2010 Shell(isolated) -ENU Then did repair To do repair please follow below path : SQL Server Installation Center -> Maintenance -> Repair

Note: None of the above worked for me.This is only worked