I was getting the error that SQL Server 2014 Management Studio has encountered an error on every start during the splash screen. This is happening on windows 8.1 running the install and application in regular and administrator modes. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the sql server 2014 and the .net frameworks. Nothing is working
Event viewer is showing
Application: Ssms.exe Framework Version: v4.0.30319 Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception. Exception Info: System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException Stack: at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.RegisteredServers.RegisteredServer.ProtectData(System.String, Boolean)
After trying all the reinstalls I remembered that it had worked one time in the beginning before I had tried to import my database connection XML from windows 7, that I had exported. For me the answer was to remove the XML configuration from the SQL Server Roaming Path
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Rename the old RegSrvr.xml to something else e.g. RegSrvr.bak
Where are registered servers stored?
Once I renamed the file to RegSrvr.xml.bak, SSMS 2014 created a new RegSrvr.xml and opened just fine.