I am struggling with this for a month, but cannot make SSMS to work. After installing SSMS 20.1 (or any other version) it constantly crashes. I get various errors such as:

• Cannot create the window
• Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation
• Crashing after the splash screen without any error message
• Losing profile data
• Crashing after login
• Crashing after various operations (SELECT TOP 1000 from the context menu etc., when starting various dialogs etc.)

Examining the event viewer I suspect a .NET issue. Some examples:

Faulting application name: Ssms.exe, version: 20.1.10.0, time stamp: 0x660d7b89
Faulting module name: clrjit.dll, version: 4.8.9241.0, time stamp: 0x6604a357
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00004964
Faulting process id: 0x3b28
Faulting application start time: 0x01dac5542e795318
Faulting application path: C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 20Common7IDESsms.exe
Faulting module path: C:WindowsMicrosoft.NETFrameworkv4.0.30319clrjit.dll
Report Id: 9cf7bd0e-2bdc-48f9-ac31-575919dab13a
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Application: Ssms.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.AccessViolationException
at System.Windows.Media.Visual.GetDpi()
at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.MeasureCore(System.Windows.Size)
at System.Windows.UIElement.Measure(System.Windows.Size)
at System.Windows.Interop.HwndSource.SetLayoutSize()
at System.Windows.Interop.HwndSource.set_RootVisualInternal(System.Windows.Media.Visual)
at System.Windows.Interop.HwndSource.set_RootVisual(System.Windows.Media.Visual)
at System.Windows.Window.SetRootVisual()
at System.Windows.Window.SetRootVisualAndUpdateSTC()
at System.Windows.Window.SafeCreateWindowDuringShow()
at System.Windows.Window.ShowHelper(System.Object)
at System.Windows.Window.Show()
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.PlatformUI.WpfHostPrivate+UIWPFElementContainer.ShowWindow()

I also noticed that if I am unsuccessful the first time I try to run SSMS, then I’m doomed until I restart and try again.

I already tried the following:

• I reinstalled my PC few times. Tried both with Windows 10 and Windows 11 fully updated, but still no luck when it comes to running SSMS correctly.
• I tried .NET Framework repair tool. No luck.
• I tried repairing SSMS. No luck.
• I tried uninstalling and installing .NET (Windows features On/Off). No luck. On a manual installation it says a current/newer version is already installed.

Everything was fine until few months ago. Then SSMS started crashing. I suspect some Windows update may have caused this because now it doesn’t work even on a freshly installed and updated PC.

Any solution?