asp.net - Cannot load a reference assembly for execution

Question

All of a sudden my website is not loading and giving me below error. I am running VS2017 with .Net Framework 4.7.1 on Windows 10 Home.

[BadImageFormatException: Cannot load a reference assembly for execution.]

[BadImageFormatException: Could not load file or assembly 'System.IO.Compression.ZipFile' or one of its dependencies. Reference assemblies should not be loaded for execution.  They can only be loaded in the Reflection-only loader context. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131058)]
   System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly._nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, RuntimeAssembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, IntPtr pPrivHostBinder, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean suppressSecurityChecks) +0
   System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.InternalLoadAssemblyName(AssemblyName assemblyRef, Evidence assemblySecurity, RuntimeAssembly reqAssembly, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, IntPtr pPrivHostBinder, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean suppressSecurityChecks) +225
   System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.InternalLoad(String assemblyString, Evidence assemblySecurity, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, IntPtr pPrivHostBinder, Boolean forIntrospection) +110
   System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.InternalLoad(String assemblyString, Evidence assemblySecurity, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean forIntrospection) +22
   System.Reflection.Assembly.Load(String assemblyString) +34
   System.Web.Configuration.CompilationSection.LoadAssemblyHelper(String assemblyName, Boolean starDirective) +48

[ConfigurationErrorsException: Could not load file or assembly 'System.IO.Compression.ZipFile' or one of its dependencies. Reference assemblies should not be loaded for execution.  They can only be loaded in the Reflection-only loader context. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131058)]
   System.Web.Configuration.CompilationSection.LoadAssemblyHelper(String assemblyName, Boolean starDirective) +729
   System.Web.Configuration.CompilationSection.LoadAllAssembliesFromAppDomainBinDirectory() +247
   System.Web.Configuration.CompilationSection.LoadAssembly(AssemblyInfo ai) +157
   System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.GetReferencedAssemblies(CompilationSection compConfig) +226
   System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.GetPreStartInitMethodsFromReferencedAssemblies() +73
   System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.CallPreStartInitMethods(String preStartInitListPath, Boolean& isRefAssemblyLoaded) +321
   System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.ExecutePreAppStart() +170
   System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.Initialize(ApplicationManager appManager, IApplicationHost appHost, IConfigMapPathFactory configMapPathFactory, HostingEnvironmentParameters hostingParameters, PolicyLevel policyLevel, Exception appDomainCreationException) +734

[HttpException (0x80004005): Could not load file or assembly 'System.IO.Compression.ZipFile' or one of its dependencies. Reference assemblies should not be loaded for execution.  They can only be loaded in the Reflection-only loader context. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131058)]
   System.Web.HttpRuntime.FirstRequestInit(HttpContext context) +525
   System.Web.HttpRuntime.EnsureFirstRequestInit(HttpContext context) +118
   System.Web.HttpRuntime.ProcessRequestNotificationPrivate(IIS7WorkerRequest wr, HttpContext context) +708

Any suggestions?

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48709542/cannot-load-a-reference-assembly-for-execution

Answer 1

What worked for me was deleting the bin and obj directories under my web app then rebuilding.