Hi. I recently got a new computer and have done a clean install of all my tools, including VS2026 Insiders and NCrunch. Some of my projects build and run tests OK, but I have one problematic one that fails all tests (it was working on the old computer). I guess it's probably a missing dependency, but I'm not sure what. I've tried searching the NCrunch docs for "prerequisites" and can't find any mention. Here's the error:



I can't work out what's causing this. I see that the error mentions both netstandard1.3 and DotNetCore.20, which isn't installed. Is this a prerequisite?

That doesn't appear to have worked, unfortunately. I added a class library project in the offending solution targeting net10.0 and manually added a reference to the allegedly missing NuGet package. The project builds, as does my test project, but all the tests are still throwing the same error. I tried disabling and re-enabling the engine, and restarting Visual Studio, etc. - just in case.

Yes, it was there. I deleted it and re-restored anyway, no joy.

However, I noticed that the problem has now moved to a different package: 'System.Runtime.Loader', version: '4.3.0'
So I installed that, and the problem moved to: 'System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters', version: '4.3.0'

It seems like there is some sort of systemic issue here, like nCrunch is trying to use a framework that's just not installed, not just the odd missing package.

It's not that. I've tried clearing the nuget cache, reinstalling NCrunch and Visual Studio. The reason I'm having this issue is that I've just started out with a clean slate on a new computer and something that nCrunch needs is missing. I've done several hours worth of troubleshooting myself and I'm really struggling with this. My AI suggested that I file the following report:

NCrunch Version: 5.20.0.2
Visual Studio Version: 2026
.NET SDK: 10.0.102

NCrunch is attempting to use nCrunch.TaskRunner.DotNetCore.20.x64
for projects targeting net8.0 and net10.0, resulting in missing
assembly errors like:
package: 'System.Collections.NonGeneric', version: '4.3.0'
path: 'lib/netstandard1.3/System.Collections.NonGeneric.dll'

The same test project works correctly for net481 target.

Test project configuration:
<TargetFrameworks>net481;net8.0;net10.0</TargetFrameworks>

Note that the solution builds and runs fine in Visual Studio. It's public if you'd like to check it out and have a look at my config: https://github.com/Tigra...lities/tree/feature/mvvm

Thanks for sending through the bug report. The report contains an error that should be showing up in your NCrunch tests window. The package names were duplicated in the error, so I fixed this manually:

ERROR: Unable to restore required Nuget packages for .NET Core test environment
NCrunch was unable to restore Nuget packages required to build a test environment for this solution, due to an error: The msbuild command returned exit code 1: "c:\program files\microsoft visual studio\18\insiders\MSBuild\Current\Bin\msbuild.exe" /t:Restore "C:\Users\Tim.Long\AppData\Local\NCrunch\53816\PackageRestore\restorePackages.csproj"

The following packages do not exist under the Nuget packages folder for the active user profile, yet they have been flagged by NCrunch as potentially needed for normal operation. NCrunch has attempted to restore these files via an MSBuild restore step, which has either failed or not returned the expected result. It's possible that these packages may not be needed for building projects or running tests in your environment. If you experience downstream problems with NCrunch on this solution, it is recommended you restore or download the packages manually.

Note that the restore of packages may fail if NCrunch is being hosted under a windows account that does not have sufficient rights to store files in the Nuget packages directory.

System.Collections.NonGeneric v4.3.0
Microsoft.NETFramework.ReferenceAssemblies.net20 v1.0.2
System.CodeDom v6.0.0
System.Collections.NonGeneric v4.3.0
System.Collections.Specialized v4.3.0
System.ComponentModel v4.3.0
System.ComponentModel.Primitives v4.3.0
System.ComponentModel.TypeConverter v4.3.0
System.Diagnostics.TraceSource v4.3.0
System.Management v6.0.0
System.Runtime.CompilerServices.Unsafe v6.0.0
System.Runtime.Loader v4.0.0
System.Runtime.Loader v4.3.0
System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters v4.3.0
System.Runtime.Serialization.Primitives v4.3.0
System.Text.Encoding.CodePages v6.0.0
System.Threading.Thread v4.0.0
System.Threading.Thread v4.3.0
xunit.abstractions v2.0.3
xunit.runner.utility v2.4.1





... Basically some environments seem to have this problem. I haven't been able to reproduce it to understand why, but I think it's somehow related to security configuration. Make yourself a csharp project that references the specified versions of the above packages and let VS's package restore pull them down, and you should be up and running.