Open Software Solutions

Source: Microsoft Support

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You are using Visual Studio 2008 with the Visual Studio PowerCommands Add-In installed.

When working with Visual Studio, it crashes unexpectedly and you see information similar to the following in the Windows Application event log.

Log Name: Application
Source: .NET Runtime
Event ID: 1023

.NET Runtime version 2.0.50727.3053 – Fatal Execution Engine Error (000007FEF671203F) (0)

This is due to a bug in the Common Language Runtime (CLR) when loading assemblies. In some scenarios, the CLR might reject a native image for a particular assembly based on the context it was requested to load in, rather than the context it actually belongs to. This can cause the native image for the assembly to be lost at some point while the process is running. When the CLR detects this condition, it purposely throws the ExecutionEngineException (Fatal Execution Engine Error), which terminates the process. 

In this scenario, System.Core.dll is reuqested by Microsoft.PowerCommands.dll. In certain scenarios, System.Core.dll loses its native image and is loaded in the wrong context, which results in the crash.

You can resolve the issue by adding a <dependentAssembly> entry for Microsoft.PowerCommands in the Devenv.exe.config file.

1. Using Notepad, open the devenv.exe.config file which is situated under Program Files Visual Studio 9 Common7 IDE folder.
2. Locate the <assemblyBinding> element underneath the <runtime> element. You should see a number of <dependentAssembly> elements listed under this.
3. Add the following <dependentAssembly> entry at the bottom of the <dependentAssembly> entries.

<dependentAssembly>
   <assemblyIdentity name=Microsoft.PowerCommands publicKeyToken=null culture=neutral/>
   <codeBase version=1.1.0.0 href=C: Program Files PowerCommands Microsoft.PowerCommands.dll/>
</dependentAssembly>

4. Be sure to place the path to Microsoft.PowerCommands.dll with the path to it on your computer.
5. Save the file and close it.
6. Restart Visual Studio 2008.

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