Error message 'Value cannot be null. Parameter name: userContext' in Visual Studio 2017

Question

I get error message

'Value cannot be null. Parameter name: userContext'

in Visual Studio 2017 when trying to click notification or opening Extensions and updates from tools folder. Before answering can you look this Answer. The answer did not work on me.

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 14 '17 at 08:49

I had same problem to. My solution is quite similar from Tahir Hassan.

Go to ...AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\15.0...\ delete the file "privateregistry.user.bin"
Start Visual Studio -> VS only ask to sign in or not.

You don't have to download any updates after that.

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 29 '17 at 13:27

5

I had this problem. Close VS, go to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\ and delete/rename a folder whose name starts with 15.0_.

Then start Visual Studio, then download and install the latest update.

After that it should work - Best of luck.

answered Aug 29 '17 at 13:27

Tahir Hassan

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you should have mentioned all recent solutions and custom settings would be deleted. I even lost my color theme extension. – Adam Heeg Dec 07 '17 at 22:51
Solutions are not deleted. Their link is just removed from the start screen. – Tahir Hassan Dec 08 '17 at 10:35

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 17 '22 at 01:17

0

I had a similar issue with Visual Studio 2022. I would perform Ctrl + F and it would simply give me a message box saying:

Value cannot be null. Parameter name: textView.

Simply closing and reopening Visual Studio worked to resolve this, if anyone is experiencing this issue.

edited Jul 17 '22 at 01:17

Jeremy Caney

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answered Jul 12 '22 at 13:14

Keenan Stewart

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Error message 'Value cannot be null. Parameter name: userContext' in Visual Studio 2017

3 Answers3

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