Cannot load projects AT ALL in visual studio community 2015 - c++

Question

I've been having this problem ever since my computer somehow abruptly decided to restart while I was working on a project.
Whenever I try to load a project now - any project - a warning message comes up saying that "The visual c++ project system package did not load correctly. The problem may have been caused by a configuration change or by the installation of another extension." Clicking either "yes" or "no" to "Continue to show this error message?" leads to a completely blank IDE, and trying to open or create any project or file after that leads to an error saying "Expected 1 exports with contract name "Microsoft.Internal.VisualStudio.PlatformUI.ISolutionAttachedCollectionService" but found 0 after applying applicable constraints."
In ActivityLog.xml, the description of the warning shows up as:
User:IdeUser, TF400813: Resource not available for anonymous access. Client authentication required.: VssUnauthorizedException during ImplicitSignIn
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.Common.VssHttpMessageHandler.<SendAsyncImpl>d__20.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.Common.VssHttpMessageHandler.<SendAsync>d__17.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.Common.VssHttpRetryMessageHandler.<SendAsync>d__3.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.WebApi.VssHttpClientBase.<SendAsync>d__79.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.WebApi.VssHttpClientBase.<SendAsync>d__76`1.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.Location.Client.LocationHttpClient.<GetConnectionDataAsync>d__6.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.Client.VssServerDataProvider.<ConnectAsync>d__39.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ValidateEnd(Task task)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Connected.ConnectedUser.IdeConnector.<ConnectAsync>d__2.MoveNext() (ActivityId: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000)
I've seen this issue floating around a lot on stackoverflow and other websites, and the suggested solution has always been to delete %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\ComponentModelCache and then restart visual studio. However, this has not worked for me thus far. Nothing - all the way to deleting said folder and then repairing or outright reinstalling visual studio - has worked. I'm at wit's end. I just don't know what else I can do, short of wiping my hard drive and reformatting Windows. Could anyone here offer any help or advice?

Answer 1

Fixed. The steps I took were thus:
Uninstalled VS
Uninstalled visual c++ redistributable from 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013... (x64 and x86)
Went through my computer and permanently deleted everything with the words "visual" and/or "studio"
Uninstalled Xamarin
Reinstalled visual studio
Run cmd as admin
Navigate to directory of visual studio
Type "devenv /Setup" (case-sensitive)
???
Login again (with another outlook account)
Profit