Dead rising 2 "Activation Context generation failed." error

[Jay 2Chingy]

i get the error message "The application has failed to start because the side-by-side configuration is incorrect" or something along those lines.
i ran sxstrace.exe and it said "Activation Context generation failed."
i've tried everything to fix this such as reinstalling the game
reinstalling directX and microsoft C++
And doing something in regedit (no clue what it was)
i literally bought the game an hour or 2 ago and been trying to fix the issue but nothing is helping on google so i resulted to the forums

[ItsSampai]

TL:DR Delete deadrising2.exe.manifest in your install directory for DR2 (Example C:\Program Files\steamapps\common\Dead Rising 2) and hopefully it works.


So, I had this issue the first time I bought the game and did all the same stuff with downloading what I though was all the Redists and had the same side by side error. So I refunded a few months ago and since its on sale now I bought it again, went through the same process redownloading all Redists including some of the ones i missed like the 2008 and 2005 packs and even then it didn't work for me.

What I ended up just trying was first running the game from the install directory for Dead rising 2 and it would just give me crash log output in the directory with no info that was useful. I then tried moving files around in the C:\Program Files\steamapps\common\Dead Rising 2 to see if I could get a different error or to get the game working, which led me to this.

There is one file in particular to look for in the directory called "deadrising2.exe.manifest". After deleting that file and trying to run from the directory the game still caused a crash log and didn't open the game but then when I tried running through steam after deleting that file the game launched with no issue. I don't know if this is a practical or reliable fix as I haven't seen anyone else really mention it before but maybe it will work for you. If it helps for info I will also list my specs with my version of windows as well.

Brief edit I have been playing for a little over an hour on Co-op with a friend and have had no issues.

OS: Windows 10 Pro 64bit
CPU: I5 8400
GPU: MSI GTX 970 Twin Frozr
Ram: 16GB (2x8gb) Corsair Vengeance
Mobo: Gigabyte B360 DS3H
SSD: 240gb Kingston A400
HDD: 1TB WD Blue
HDD 2: 1TB WD Black
PSU: 500W EVGA

[Jay 2Chingy]

games broke, thanks

[ItsSampai]

Originally posted by G L I Z Z Y:

games broke, thanks

Didn't end up working for you after that? If so I'm not sure whatelse you could try. I have the exe set to run with admin but thats the only other thing I have setup so if that isn't working I don't know what'd work for you. If anything you can revalidate the files to get any files you deleted and try again with loading the game. Also what OS and hardware do you have?

[Jay 2Chingy]

i'm joking it did work, thanks a lot man, i appreciate it :D