Today I opened SSMS in one of my SQL 2005 box,and to my surprise I got this error right away

“The file C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\%version%\mscorlib.tlb could not be loaded.”

I was running SQL 2005 SP3 (Yes,you heard it right !) and the only .NET framework which was installed on the box was .NET 2.0.

I went ahead to check the folder C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\Framework and to my surprise I found that the folder framework is missing !

How did that happen ?  Before I get into identifying what caused this to happen,I had to fix the problem with SSMS.SSMS should be opened directly from the server ( I agree that its not a good practice,however the situation demanded it)

I decided to try my luck with repairing .NET framework as this was one of the options I had.I went ahead and did the repair of .NET framework 2.0 from Add/Remove options.

The repair just went smooth and I could see the missing files/ folders getting created again while the setup was running.

SSMS just launched perfect and the issue was fixed.

Conclusion

You can also do this repair in case you face similar issue.I will be focusing on why this corruption happened during the coming days and will update the same post in case I get some hints.

Thanks for reading and keep repairing !