ClickOnce deployment "Activation failed" FileNotFoundException

10

I just deployed an update to a clickonce application. I have deployed dozens of updates with no issue. Now all of a sudden, with this update, all my users are reporting this error:

ERROR SUMMARY

Below is a summary of the errors, details of these errors are listed later in the log.
    * Activation of C:\Users\XXX\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\XXX\XXX\XXX.appref-ms| resulted in exception. Following failure messages were detected:
        + Activation failed.
        + The system cannot find the file specified. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070002)

Following errors were detected during this operation.

* [3/15/2012 3:22:34 PM] System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentException (Activation)
        - Activation failed.
        - Source: System.Deployment
        - Stack trace:
            at System.Deployment.Application.ComponentStore.ActivateApplication(DefinitionAppId appId, String activationParameter, Boolean useActivationParameter)
            at System.Deployment.Application.SubscriptionStore.ActivateApplication(DefinitionAppId appId, String activationParameter, Boolean useActivationParameter)
            at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.Activate(DefinitionAppId appId, AssemblyManifest appManifest, String activationParameter, Boolean useActivationParameter)
            at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.ProcessOrFollowShortcut(String shortcutFile, String& errorPageUrl, TempFile& deployFile)
            at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivation(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl)
            at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.ActivateDeploymentWorker(Object state)
        --- Inner Exception ---
        System.IO.FileNotFoundException
        - The system cannot find the file specified. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070002)
        - Source: System.Deployment
        - Stack trace:
            at System.Deployment.Application.NativeMethods.CorLaunchApplication(UInt32 hostType, String applicationFullName, Int32 manifestPathsCount, String[] manifestPaths, Int32 activationDataCount, String[] activationData, PROCESS_INFORMATION processInformation)
            at System.Deployment.Application.ComponentStore.ActivateApplication(DefinitionAppId appId, String activationParameter, Boolean useActivationParameter)

Of course it doesn't tell me exactly what file it's looking for that fails. I'm stumped on this!

c#
deployment
clickonce
filenotfoundexception
asked on Stack Overflow Mar 15, 2012 by Chris Ray • edited Mar 16, 2012 by S. M. Shahinul Islam

3 Answers

5

At least a few people have been able to solve this by clearing out all of the ClickOnce data and reinstalling, blaming it on corrupt file storage.

See this MSDN forum post for more info.

answered on Stack Overflow Apr 3, 2012 by brett rogers
1

For me the following procedure usually works:

  • Revert to previous version from Programs and functions control panel
  • Run install in IE from the installation URL http://...
answered on Stack Overflow Apr 28, 2015 by Vojtěch Dohnal
0

I just ran into this issue. Our company is in the middle of changing domains, where the user's computer was on domain B, but the click once app was still on a shared drive in domain A.

Copying the files to the computer and installing from there allowed the app to run.

answered on Stack Overflow Oct 1, 2018 by ps2goat

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