I have a Visual Studio 2012/2013 package that is having an issue I cannot figure out. Occasionally, after installing a new version of the assembly and attempting to execute one of the registered commands, I receive the following error:
"Could not load file or assembly '*' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified"
The assembly it claims cannot be loaded is the primary assembly for the package, yet my commands are in the interface - one on the Tools menu, the others on context menus. The weird part is that the context menu commands seem to work -at least, they don't throw an obvious error. I can even still see the logs from the extension in the Event Log, even though nothing appears in the Activity Log. However, the command on the Tools menu continues to throw the exception.
I've verified the existence of the plugin files. I've checked the registry key under HKCU:\\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\11.0\ExtensionManager\EnabledExtensions, and it points to the correct folder. The only change there was the version number appended to the package guid. I've also checked the HKCU:\\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\11.0\ExtensionManager\ExtensionTypes, and the value for my extension is just as it was with previous versions (Microsoft.VisualStudio.Package).
Reinstalling does not help. I can reinstall a thousand times and still see that error. Then I try again later and suddenly it works. Can anyone help?