Web deployment task failed. (The type initializer for 'Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentManager' threw an exception.)

Okay, so I hit this problem and none of these answers worked for me. I boiled it down to a single line of code, namely:

var deploymentOptions = new Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentBaseOptions();

If you don't manually pass this to DeploymentManager it will internally instantiate this object. Even more interesting was that this code would run fine for me as the only line of a console app while it failed if I put it into a unit test (kicked off with vstest).

Here's the full body of the exception:

System.TypeInitializationException occurred  HResult=-2146233036  Message=The type initializer for 'Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentManager' threw an exception.  Source=Microsoft.Web.Deployment  TypeName=Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentManager  StackTrace:       at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentManager.GetLinkExtensions()       at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentBaseOptions..ctor()       at SimpleTest.Test.UnitTest1.TestMethod1() in f:\Source\Projects\SimpleTest.Test\UnitTest1.cs:line 12  InnerException: System.TypeInitializationException       HResult=-2146233036       Message=The type initializer for 'Microsoft.Web.Deployment.BuiltInTypesCache' threw an exception.       Source=Microsoft.Web.Deployment       TypeName=Microsoft.Web.Deployment.BuiltInTypesCache       StackTrace:            at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.BuiltInTypesCache.get_Factories()            at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentProviderFactoryCollection.LoadFromRegistry()            at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentProviderFactoryCollection..ctor()            at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentManager.LoadDeploymentManagerSettings()            at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentManager..cctor()       InnerException: Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentException            HResult=-2146233088            Message=The provider 'Microsoft.Data.Tools.Schema.MsDeploy.MsDeployProviderFactory' could not be loaded.            Source=Microsoft.Web.Deployment            StackTrace:                 at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentProviderFactory.Create(Type type)                 at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.BuiltInTypesCache.InspectTypesForWebDeployAttributes(IEnumerable`1 types, String dllName)                 at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.BuiltInTypesCache..cctor()            InnerException: Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentException                 HResult=-2146233088                 Message=The type 'Microsoft.Data.Tools.Schema.MsDeploy.MsDeployProviderFactory' could not be loaded. The configuration settings may not be valid.                 Source=Microsoft.Web.Deployment                 StackTrace:                      at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.ReflectionHelper.CreateInstance[T](Type type, Object[] constructorArguments)                      at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.DeploymentProviderFactory.Create(Type type)                 InnerException: System.TypeInitializationException                      HResult=-2146233036                      Message=The type initializer for 'Microsoft.Data.Tools.Schema.MsDeploy.MsDeployProviderBaseProviderFactory' threw an exception.                      Source=mscorlib                      TypeName=Microsoft.Data.Tools.Schema.MsDeploy.MsDeployProviderBaseProviderFactory                      StackTrace:                           at System.Runtime.Remoting.RemotingServices.AllocateUninitializedObject(RuntimeType objectType)                           at System.Runtime.Remoting.Activation.ActivationServices.CreateInstance(RuntimeType serverType)                           at System.Runtime.Remoting.Activation.ActivationServices.IsCurrentContextOK(RuntimeType serverType, Object[] props, Boolean bNewObj)                           at System.RuntimeTypeHandle.CreateInstance(RuntimeType type, Boolean publicOnly, Boolean noCheck, Boolean& canBeCached, RuntimeMethodHandleInternal& ctor, Boolean& bNeedSecurityCheck)                           at System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceSlow(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean skipCheckThis, Boolean fillCache, StackCrawlMark& stackMark)                           at System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceDefaultCtor(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean skipCheckThis, Boolean fillCache, StackCrawlMark& stackMark)                           at System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type, Boolean nonPublic)                           at System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceImpl(BindingFlags bindingAttr, Binder binder, Object[] args, CultureInfo culture, Object[] activationAttributes, StackCrawlMark& stackMark)                           at System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type, BindingFlags bindingAttr, Binder binder, Object[] args, CultureInfo culture, Object[] activationAttributes)                           at System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type, Object[] args)                           at Microsoft.Web.Deployment.ReflectionHelper.CreateInstance[T](Type type, Object[] constructorArguments)                      InnerException: System.IO.FileNotFoundException                           HResult=-2147024894                           Message=Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Data.Tools.Schema.Sql, Version=10.3.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.                           Source=Microsoft.Data.Tools.Schema.DbSqlPackage                           FileName=Microsoft.Data.Tools.Schema.Sql, Version=10.3.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a                           FusionLog=""                           StackTrace:                                at Microsoft.Data.Tools.Schema.MsDeploy.MsDeployProviderBaseProviderFactory..cctor()                           InnerException:

After talking to the team in Microsoft that owns this component I learned a simple solution:

Look for a key in the registry under the following paths that points the the problem assembly and delete it:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\IIS Extensions\msdeploy\3\extensibilityHKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\IIS Extensions\msdeploy\3\extensibility

(After cleaning up the registry, remember to restart Visual Studio)

The problem registry key is installed by SQL.

I had the same problem but installing SQL 2012 and changing the registry didn't fix it. After reinstalling Web Deploy 3.5 on my development machine things got straightened out.

Just uninstall Microsoft dbsqlpackage provider. Go to "Programs and Features". It is no longer used.