Symptoms: Backup console failing to open after upgrade with "Object reference not set to an instance to an object"

[manselmi]

Symptoms: Backup console failing to open after upgrade with "Object reference not set to an instance to an object" from backup console or "Could not load file or assembly" error in the logs (these are similar but separate issues, so they are tracked separately)
Cause: This looks to be caused by some uncommon Group Policy settings that prevents validating signature on some of the loaded libraries. This issue is still being investigated, however all support cases so far seem to be coming from high security environments with non-default settings (like U.S.
federal customers), so we believe this issue should not affect most customers.
Status: Investigating.

Hello,

I've narrowed this as relating to Dot Net 4 Framework STIG. Specifically the setting:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key path SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework Value name AllowStrongNameBypass Value type REG_DWORD Value data 0x0 (0)

Setting the value to 1 allows the backup console to launch.

[foggy]

Hi Michael, you're correct, this policy doesn't allow to load one of the libraries. Hotfix for this issue is available through support though. See the sticky Top Issues Tracker topic for more info. Thanks!