(null) is not a valid Win32 app

[maylortaylor]

I just finished a console application that reads an XML file and zips the selected files (read from the xml). It works fine on the machine I made the program on and other Win7 machines; however, when i try to install it on the database machine i intended the program for...it pops up this error whenever i run the app.

"(null) is not a valid Win32 application"

It was created in .NET 3.5 (and 4). And the machine it is not working on is a Windows 2003 server machine. This sounds like a compatability issue but i'm clueless on how to troubleshoot. Ideas?

[zmbd]

I am WAY out of my depth here so please bear with me... are there any DLL or other resources that are on the development machine that are not available on the target?
Even something simple like not having the correct .Net available on the server could result in that error.
That is where I would start.

[PsychoCoder]

A couple of things to check:

• Check if all the modules are built for the same platform. (no mixing of modules intended for x86 and x64 platforms).
• Check your event log entries, sometimes a log entry will be made with this error telling what is going wrong.

[!NoItAll]

Why did you build it with .net 4 AND 3.5? Thats very odd and indicates you probably are suffering from versionitis...
At least start by making sure you have actually installed .net 4 and 3.5 on the machine you are trying to run it on - and also make sure you have indeed compiled it to run for Win32.

[maylortaylor]

I am WAY out of my depth here so please bear with me... are there any DLL or other resources that are on the development machine that are not available on the target?
Even something simple like not having the correct .Net available on the server could result in that error.
That is where I would start.

Well I used .NET 3.5 to create the program so it would be compatible with older machines. And the only .dll i'm using in ionicZip (which is included in the setup package). I'll try running an even older version of .NET though

[PsychoCoder]

An older version of .NET isn't going to resolve your problem, just make sure 4.5 & 4 is installed on the target machine. Also, how did you build it, did you build it for an x86 system or an x64 system? And what is the target system running (x86 or x64)?