[Solved] ModBuddy/Visual Studio Launch Issue

[Zakolj]

I recently decided to dip my toes in modding, and therefore downloaded the dev tools and assets through steam. I also installed the visual studio that is required. When I went to open ModBuddy I was greeted with everything working perfectly fine, until the window suddenly closed itself and I was unable to reopen it. When I open the dev tools the ModBuddy button is grayed out and hovering over it tells me "ModBuddy was not found. Please reinstall the development tools." Which seems like an easy solution, except that it doesn't work.

I've tried using steam to validate the files, which tells me 1 file was unable to be validated.
I've done a complete removal of all of the dev tools and assets and after a reboot installed them again, to no avail.
I've looked around and tried to find out any information on where to ask for help without finding anything.
When trying to open the executable directly I cannot find it, only the config file.

Anyone have a clue what might've gone wrong, or what I've overlooked? And preferably how to solve it.

Edit 190531: I seem to have figured out the issue is with visual studio rather than modbuddy or the dev tools. Attempting to figure out exactly what is going wrong and how to remedy it.
Edit 2 190601: A clean install of everything, including visual studio directly from microsoft did not solve the issue. The modbuddy exe still vanishes shortly after opening it for the first time after each install.
Edit 3 190602: I have solved the issue, which was caused by my anti-virus software ignoring my exception for the modbuddy executable and removing it without notifying me whatsoever.

 

[Zugaikotsu]

I've had something similiar happen when I had multiple installations of VS installed to the same base folder. This doesn't seem to be a problem for the main Microsoft installations (where I had VS 15. 17, and 19), but the isolated shell that is deployed with ModBuddy did seem to cause some corruption to both itself and the others, if I recall. I don't remember the exact steps I went through (which involved uninstalling/reinstalling various VS), but eventually I was able to reinstall the isolated shell into a different folder, which appeared to fix things up.
None of this could be related to your specific problem, but it could be something to look out for if you have multiple VS installed.

 

[Zakolj]

Thank you! While that was not the issue for me, I did find a solution once I tried installing the same thing on my boyfriend's computer. It's set up exactly like mine and when I opened modbuddy his anti-virus software pinged and said that modbuddy could damage the computer. My anti-virus software just deleted the file without my knowledge, even after I created an exception. I had to turn of silent mode and then open modbuddy in order to force my anti-virus software to give me the option of keeping the file. I feel incredibly dumb, I will edit the title and post to reflect the current situation.