Troubleshooting .NET Framework parser error after upgrade to Windows 8

After upgrading from Windows 7 Ultimate to Windows 8 Pro, I encountered buggy behavior of several of applications based on .NET Framework 2.0/3.5. Apparently, the error manifested itself in a way that the apps didn’t want to run properly and were failing with error “Error parsing C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Config\machine.config. Parser returned error 0xC00CE556”. I didn’t paying attention on this until it happened when I tried to install Visual Studio 2012 – installer simply wouldn’t start. Click To View Entry