Visual Studio 2015 Community Crashes on Startup

Question

I've been using VS 2015 Community Edition without any issues for the past 2 months. Then one day it decided to crash (I wasn't doing anything when it crashed). After I tried starting it up again, it only gets to the home-page screen then crashes. No project is being opened, it crashes on its own.

Things I tried with no success:

1. Repairing the install.

2. Uninstalling then Reinstalling.

3. Running in /safemode (still crashes in safemode!)

I don't have anything custom installed (especially after the clean install).

At this point my only hope is re-installing windows (running Windows 7), and hoping the problem goes away then. Any other ideas, things I can try?

Here's the log dump from starting VS2015 in safemode (I wanted to post the contents here, but they exceed the allowed post size): http://wikisend.com/download/447654/vs_log.txt

I did search through the log for error tags, and found the following instances:

  <entry>
    <record>2196</record>
    <time>2016/03/16 19:49:43.330</time>
    <type>Error</type>
    <source>UserConnection</source>
    <description>Failed to get IAccountManager from service provider.</description>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <record>2416</record>
    <time>2016/03/16 19:49:44.273</time>
    <type>Error</type>
    <source>Extension Manager</source>
    <description>Extension will not be loaded because an extension with the same ID &apos;Microsoft.Dev14.VsixTemplatesPackage.V2.443cca91-ec20-41e5-a165-f28e56b89650&apos; is already loaded at C:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\MICROSOFT VISUAL STUDIO 14.0\COMMON7\IDE\EXTENSIONS\OZPNHXDR.G5H\...</description>
    <path>C:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\MICROSOFT VISUAL STUDIO 14.0\COMMON7\IDE\EXTENSIONS\NUGETIFIEDEXTENSIBILITYTEMPLATES\</path>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <record>2417</record>
    <time>2016/03/16 19:49:44.274</time>
    <type>Error</type>
    <source>Extension Manager</source>
    <description>Extension will not be loaded because an extension with the same ID &apos;Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.TeamExplorer.Extensions&apos; is already loaded at C:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\MICROSOFT VISUAL STUDIO 14.0\COMMON7\IDE\EXTENSIONS\MKTRGVMI.4Y3\...</description>
    <path>C:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\MICROSOFT VISUAL STUDIO 14.0\COMMON7\IDE\COMMONEXTENSIONS\MICROSOFT\TEAMFOUNDATION\TEAM EXPLORER\</path>
  </entry>

EDIT 1:

Following magicandre1981's advice I ran procdump, but the resulting file is 0.5 GB, so it's too much to upload. Here's a screenshot from the dump file. The exception seems to be 0xE0434352.

EDIT 2:

I looked at Event Viewer, and found the following Error related to the crash. Looks like the exception is caused by Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.Experimentation.FlightsClient:

Application: devenv.exe Framework Version: v4.0.30319 Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception. Exception Info: System.NullReferenceException at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.Experimentation.FlightsClient+<ReadStreamFromRemoteAsync>d__20`1[[System.__Canon, mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089]].MoveNext() at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(System.Threading.Tasks.Task) at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(System.Threading.Tasks.Task) at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.Experimentation.ShippedFlightsClient+<SetRemoteFlightsAsync>d__4.MoveNext() at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(System.Threading.Tasks.Task) at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(System.Threading.Tasks.Task) at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.Experimentation.VSExperimentationService+<<FlightDataCallback>b__33_0>d.MoveNext() at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(System.Threading.Tasks.Task) at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(System.Threading.Tasks.Task) at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.Experimentation.VSExperimentationService+<FlightDataCallback>d__33.MoveNext() at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.AsyncMethodBuilderCore+<>c.<ThrowAsync>b__6_1(System.Object) at System.Threading.QueueUserWorkItemCallback.WaitCallback_Context(System.Object) at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object, Boolean) at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object, Boolean) at System.Threading.QueueUserWorkItemCallback.System.Threading.IThreadPoolWorkItem.ExecuteWorkItem() at System.Threading.ThreadPoolWorkQueue.Dispatch() at System.Threading._ThreadPoolWaitCallback.PerformWaitCallback() 

EDIT 3:

Searching for TestFlight related posts, I found the following from Microsoft (opting out of Experience Improvement Program). Looked very promising, but sadly didn't resolve my issue:

https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/2082049/crash-on-startup

Answer 1

I fixed the problem by installing Visual Studio 2015 Update 2 RC (I was running Update 1), and unchecking every single optional install feature (I just need C#/WPF). Chances are, simply installing Update 2 RC would fix the issue, but I've wasted too much time on it already to keep trying over and over again.

Here's a link to Update 2 RC: https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/news/vs2015-update2-vs.aspx