For the past couple of years, Autodesk has been releasing official solutions and workarounds to address Microsoft’s app configuration change detection feature. 

Appearing since the 21H1 version of the Windows 10 operating system, the feature (intended to be a crash prevention failsafe) prevents an application from opening if an unexpected change to configuration files is detected.

The error message shown in Figure 1 is returned, informing the user that the “side-by-side configuration is incorrect.”

The event viewer application log may reveal the problematic line detected by Windows:

Though modifying the problematic line may also serve to correct the issue, we have found that applying Autodesk’s recommendation ( “The application failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect.” when starting Vault Client (autodesk.com) ) of restoring the configuration file to it’s initial state is the fastest and most effective way to return Vault to full functionality. 

Figure 3 shows the location of the Connectivity.Vault.exe.Config file, which can be replaced by the original file, located in the Setup folder in the Vault deployment location.  This folder can normally be found in the Vault Client folder residing in C:\Autodesk.

We also recommend backing up this file to a safe location before a problem with the working file arises.

If this folder has been removed, feel free to contact TATA’s Autodesk Product Support Team.  We will be happy to provide you with a fresh configuration file to help you get your Vault installation squared away!

For more information, please contact your Account Manager.