If you are coming from Google, I’m sure that you are having problems that Visual Studio 2008 keep on crashing without showing any message or error when you are trying to open the resource files, XAML or the properties page of your project.
If you look at Event Viewer, you will see this error message “.NET Runtime version 2.0.50727.3603 – Fatal Execution Engine Error (7A036050) (80131506)”
Here is the screenshot that I took when I was having this error.
If you click on Red Icon then you will see the error message in details as below.
How to fix then? Yes. it’s very simple. Microsoft already released the fix for this issue. You can go and download it from this link. As you can see the screenshot below, there are 6 files for you to download. You can download the required files based on your processor. If you are using x84 then you just need to download NDP20SP2-KB963676-x86.exe and Windows6.0-KB963676-x86.msu only.

You downloaded all files and you should get KB963676 folder that contains all six files that you need.
Here is the step for installing this fix.
1. Double-click on NDP20SP2-KB963676-x86.exe. You will see the welcome screen below. Please click on “Next” button.
2. Check “I have read and accept the license terms”
3. Please wait for a while while installing.
4. You will see the screen once installation is completed.
Then, you can re-open your Visual Studio and try to open the resource files or etc. You should be able to open it without any crash. Good luck!
Note: I’m writing this post for documentation purpose so I added full of pictures and detailed steps. I hope people can use it as a reference whenever they are having the same problem with VS.
.NET Runtime version 2.0.50727.3603 – Fatal Execution Engine Error (7A036050) (80131506) – mscoree.dll

Thanks so much! I’ve been having this very issue for a few weeks now and trying to resolve it. Hopefully this will do the trick.
Link | November 2nd, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Your welcome! Lee.
Good luck :)
Link | November 2nd, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Tks for sharing the solution with us. This solution works perfect for me!
Bye!
Link | November 11th, 2009 at 10:10 am
I had a problem with Outlook crashing on the client’s computer which coincided with event ID: 1023, .NET Runtime version 2.0. Applying the MS fix solved the issue. Thanks much
Link | November 12th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Thanks, solved my Add Web Test Request Plug-in VS crash issue.
Link | November 17th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
This one has been driving me crazy. It looks like you are running windows XP. However, several of those files look like they are for windows vista. Am I just seeing things?
Link | November 18th, 2009 at 10:00 am
Thanks for posting this, the issue has been bothering me for some time
Link | November 19th, 2009 at 4:25 am
Thanks a lot.. it was really helpful..
Link | November 25th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Michael, I haven’t even finished reading the solution but needed to thank you first for taking the time to share it. Like most developers, I tend to immediately copy and paste an error message into Google. In this case I first (for the first time) clicked the link provided by Microsoft in the event viewer…got a “not found”. Your post was one of the first hits on Google. I’m not saying solving this problem has changed my life :). But I was suddenly struck with appreciation for all the people who share things and make it possible for the rest of us (who don’t have a blog and who don’t take the time to share things) to get an answer with a couple of clicks. Thanks again!
Rodney
Link | December 2nd, 2009 at 11:32 am
Thank you so much!!! Works like a charm !!!
Link | December 30th, 2009 at 1:23 am
This issue still happens after I installed the fix. Same error in the event log. Any advices would be much appreciated.
Link | December 30th, 2009 at 3:47 am
Michael, After looking for almost a week on the Symantec BackupExec 12.5 site (and finding NOTHING) I found your guide. Within a couple minutes, I was back in business and backing up my servers!
THANK YOU THANK YOU! It pained me so much to go home yet again without a backup running. Now I can go home and sleep a good night sleep!
Cheers to Michael!
Thanks again…
Link | January 5th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Thanks for taking the time to document this – made the fix totally painless.
Link | January 6th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
Thank you very much! This solved my problem.
Link | January 10th, 2010 at 11:36 am
Thank you Michael. This was very helpful and gave me a quick solution to a puzzling problem.
Link | January 19th, 2010 at 11:52 am
Thanks !!!!
Link | February 2nd, 2010 at 1:13 am
Thank you for the excellent post. Help me greatly
Link | February 12th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
thanks so much!
this issue make me mad and your solution help
Link | February 25th, 2010 at 6:39 am
Thanks for this, a great post that has fixed my problem.
Link | March 2nd, 2010 at 10:17 am
Excellent post. Many thanks for this Michael, saved me God knows how much time. :)
Link | March 18th, 2010 at 5:33 am
Thanks man! You’re the best! You’ve just saved my ass…
Link | April 9th, 2010 at 6:32 am
Really appreciate to you. This issue has been trouble me since last week. Apprently I thought that was due to other new software installation crash on my VS. Refer to some forum discussion, I have uninstall VS2010 Express and it’s component according to their suggestion. But non of them works until I found you. Thanks again.
Ya, in the mean time I fail to open WPF designer in VS, I try kaxaml for the WPF Window editing. I found it quite useful and very lightweight. Of course it cannot compare to Microsoft Expression Blend but it is free to use :)
Link | April 22nd, 2010 at 11:46 pm
The link to the fix is broken. This does not appear to be a valid fix anymore.
Link | August 12th, 2010 at 10:26 am