Sql Server Management Studio closes immediately after startup

This solution worked!

Step1:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 18\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Platform\Microsoft.VisualStudio.MinShell.Interop.pkgdef

Rename and make sure this file does not have the .pkgdef extension anymore. Or remove the file.

Step2:

Remove the following Registry Key (which is created at SSMS 18 Startup using the .pkgdef file mentioned above):

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SQL Server Management Studio\18.0_IsoShell_Config\RuntimeConfiguration\dependentAssembly\bindingRedirection\{8BC7AF31-B6DA-4B97-8B36-F0500DECB147}

From now on SSMS 18 will start.

Source: SQL Server Management Studio 18 GA (15.0.18118.0) not compatible with .NET Framework 4.8^🕗 {toggle_previous_statuses}

I had this same problem running SQL Server 2017 on Windows Server 2012 R2.

• After installing SSMS 18.0 General Availability release (GA), when started, it always closed immediately.

• So I installed Visual Studio 2019 Community Edition with the Data storage and Processing workload and somehow SSMS 18.0 (GA) ran fine without closing, but just once. The next times I tried to start SSMS 18.0 (GA) again, it always closed immediately.

• Having lost my trust on this GA release, I decided to uninstall it and try with a previous release.

• Using the Chocolatey package manager for Windows https://chocolatey.org/packages/sql-server-management-studio I installed SSMS v17.8.1 and everything is working fine now.

Can't believe, that the only solution was to install VS 2015 again. So I use VS 2017 in everyday work, but I must have VS 2015 installed as well, just to make SSMS work...