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Symptoms
When you install Visual Studio using the online installer on a Windows 10, version 21H2 machine, it fails with the following error message in the setup logs:
HttpWebRequest& webRequest, String& remoteAddress, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
Download failed using WebClient engine. System.Configuration.ConfigurationErrorsException: Configuration system failed to initialize --->
System.Configuration.ConfigurationErrorsException: Unrecognized element. (C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Config\machine.config line 141)
Cause
The error message indicates that there's a corrupt or incorrect setting in the machine.config file located at C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Config\.
Resolution
To solve the issue, follow these steps:
- Open File Explorer and navigate to the path: C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Config\.
- In the Config directory, locate the machine.config file.
- Rename the machine.config file to create a backup. You can rename it to machine_bkp.config or any other name of your choice.
- Still in the same directory, locate the machine.config.default file.
- Make a copy of the machine.config.default file.
- Rename the new copy of the file to machine.config. This file replaces the existing machine.config file with the default version.
- Restart your machine to ensure the changes take effect.
Renaming the machine.config file and replacing it with the default version resets the configuration to its original state, which can help resolve any corrupt or incorrect settings that might have caused the Visual Studio bootstrapper to fail during installation.
After restarting your machine, run the Visual Studio online installation again. The bootstrapper should now be able to launch successfully without encountering the ConfigurationErrorsException related to the machine.config file.