Error: Unable to open shim database

I get this kind of events logged in the eventlog:

Source: .Net Runtime
Type: Error

Unable to open shim database version registry key - v2.0.50727.00000.

Is this 'normal' behaviour or is there a misconfiguration. I have this messages on
Windows 2003 Server, on SqlServer2005 boxes as well on TFS app tier and Terminal Server running VS2005.

Strange thing is: everythings seems to work OK...

Rene

.NET Development16

I have this error 2 when after installing .Net Framework 2.0.

I installed the framework on sevral other servers too but only getting errors on my both TS + Citrix servers..

I'm testing click once deployment, and when i install the msdn click once sample application on a w2003 server, using TS i'm getting this error, and the application does not start....
Anybody has any idea

I got it too

There is a known issue in the v2.0 runtime that is causing this but in general it does not have any negative effects on the machine. What's going on is that there is a "shim database" in the registry that the runtime reads to determine if an application that is about to load the runtime via COM interop really needs an earlier vesion instead.

The problem is that the runtime was incorrectly asking for read/write permission to these reg keys rather than the read access it needed and so if you try to load managed code via com interop in a process that does not have administrator privilages you will get this in your event log and we will choose the runtime for this process as we normally do. This only impacts applications if you are running one of the applications that is in the list that needed the earlier runtime.

The only time we expect this to occur is if you are running Word or Excel 2003 as a non-admin user and you have VSTO 2003 applications installed on the machine. If this is the case for you, you can go to Office Update and the latest critical updates will fix the issue and your applications will work as always (you will still get this entry in the event log).

We plan on addressing this issue as early as possible in an SP we don't know when that would occur.

Is it safe to uninstall the netframe on the servers that got problems until this issue is solved < xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

The error not only occurs if you are running Word or Excel 2003. It also occured as I downloaded Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware from the Microsoft Download Center caused by the Genuine Microsoft Download check.

According to regmon the following keys have an access denied during Excel startup:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Registration
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\ProductVersion
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\Config
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel\InstallRoot
HKLM\Hardware\Description\System\CentralProcessor\0
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate

HKCR\.htm

Is it safe to grant the user write permissons to those keys
(as a quick work around )

We have a VS2005 windows app deployed using a SQL Server 2005 backend on a single computer. This error occurs when the app attempts a connection to the DB in order to save a transaction and, in fact, causes a timeout. It appears to happen at random, twice in a 4 day span. The NT user has restricted rights and does not belong to the administrators group.

This is certainly a major problem.

-nava

Hello Jesse,

It appears this is more of a global issue than just Excel. I am encountering the error running BizTalk 2004 (on 1.1) when an Http Receive is executing.

I suspect any process that wants to host the CLR that lives on the COM side of the fence (could it be any other way right now ) throws this error.

It is a nuisance, but if I understand you correctly, it has no implications otherwise

Hi Jesse

Is this error logged in the KB or msdn , can you give me the link for this issue in microsoft site.

I am also looking for more information on this issue.

I have an application that has stopped working since installing the final version of VS2005 - It was working OK with the Beta versions, but now when I try to sign on on to my Web app , I get a Server Application Unavailable message. The event logs contains messages

Unable to open shim database version registry key - v2.0.50727.00000.

aspnet_wp.exe (PID: 4056) stopped unexpectedly.

The application is an asp.net 2.0 web app calling a asp.net 2.0 web service - it does not use excel, word, biztalk, etc. The application worked for a while after installing VS2005 but has now stopped - I dont know why.

This is an urgent issue for me as it is delaying my development work.

Regards

Aengus O'Sullivan

Updated:

If appears that my asp worker process problem was caused by an error during compilation - using the wrong version of an assembly. Problem solved : sorry for false alarm. However I would still like to fix the

Unable to open shim database version registry key - v2.0.50727.00000

message

Thanks

Aengus O'Sullivan

Can you run regmon (from sysinternals) and filter on errors only, to see which registry key is actually the culprit

Tnx

Rene

I am just trying to find out more on this issue. It is showing up in our site's Event Viewer and I am investigating whether or not it is having affects on login time. Currently we are experiencing login times around a minute and a half on the slowest segment of our network and I notice this error being produced a few times during startup and login. Could this potentially be a cause We have current Office 2003 Updates and are running Visual Studio .NET 2003 in all sites.

According to Jesse it is only an access permission issue on one ore more registry keys. If you run Registry Monitor (download from www.sysinternals.com) (no install required, but run it as Administrator) you can find out which registry keys give a Access Denied. The involved registry keys require write permissions.

I cannot imagine that this is causing network problems but it might be related with the start of an appdomain where the starting application is trying to lookup a non-existing server or a wrong route.

Rene