Sitecore Swamp

If you like me, always turn on the detailed build output verbosity, you must know the output information is bit too much. Now with VSColorOutput, it becomes quite easy to focus on the more important things.

What is it?

VSColorOutput can change the color of a line emitted to the output window based on specified rules. The rules consist of regular expressions. Rules map to classifications which in turn map to colors. (More information)

The default patterns will color build errors in red, warnings in yellow/gold and successfull build messages in green.

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MikeWard-AnnArbor.VSColorOutput

Issue

In a recent job, I need to spin up a vm box and install Sitecore 8.1.3 environment with existing deployed code. When everything is done, start the website, an error displays: 

Server Error in '/' Application.

Could not load file or assembly 'ChilkatDotNet45.DLL' or one of its dependencies. The specified module could not be found.

Investigation

It turns out that EXM has dependencies on the Chilkat dot assembly, and it requires Visual C++ 2012 (x64) rumtime. As the version is so old, it's not installed.

Resolution

Download and install Visual C++ 2012 Redistributable (x64) fixes the issue. With Sitecore 9, it would be Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable (x64)