What does NTSTATUS 0xC0150003 (STATUS_SXS_INVALID_ACTCTXDATA_FORMAT) mean?

 
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STATUS_SXS_CANT_GEN_ACTCTX STATUS_SXS_ASSEMBLY_NOT_FOUND

STATUS_SXS_INVALID_ACTCTXDATA_FORMAT

The activation-context data is structurally invalid

STATUS_SXS_INVALID_ACTCTXDATA_FORMAT points to malformed data supplied for activation-context construction or interpretation. It is a structural-data result: Windows cannot treat the supplied data as a valid source of side-by-side metadata.

Do not collapse it into a missing assembly problem. A missing dependency can be resolved by supplying the correct assembly; an invalid data format requires identifying the source file or resource whose contents are no longer a valid activation-context representation. Compare the bytes and resource type from a trusted build rather than editing the installed copy in place.

What to inspect

  • Identify whether the source was an external .manifest, an RT_MANIFEST resource, or data prepared by code through ACTCTX.
  • Check the file encoding, leading bytes and XML namespace before relying on visual inspection in an editor.
  • Compare the affected resource or manifest with the artifact produced by the same build and signing pipeline.

References


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