We have seen this error (especially with Windows 10) recently when launching any tool in ArcGIS Desktop (ArcMap):
This error can appear from many sources, but it appears to commonly be related to the XML stylesheets ArcGIS Desktop uses not working well with Windows 10.
Here are several workarounds:
- First try Resetting your ArcGIS application profile (this often fixes all kinds of things and is a good first step)
- If that doesn't work, try this (note, this will require admin access if you don't have write access to your install folder):
- Download the attached zip and extract the contents (XML stylesheet files MdDlgContent.xsl, MdDlgHelp.xsl)
- Go to your install folder and find the stylsheets folder.
The default location is: C:\Program Files(x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.4\ArcToolbox\Stylesheets - Rename files (safer as you can rename back if this does not work)
MdDlgContent.xsl > MdDlgContent_old.xsl
MdDlgHelp.xsl > MdDlgHelp_old.xsl - Copy the extracted files ( MdDlgContent.xsl, MdDlgHelp.xsl) to the Stylesheets folder
- Restart ArcMap
- An alternate approach is to loosen an IE security setting. Obviously this would be less popular with system administrators. A one line fix to make the required registry change is to open a command prompt window and paste this command line:
- Per user: (admin access not required)
REG ADD "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Zones\0" /v 1201 /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f - Per system: (admin access required, best to run from an administrative window)
REG ADD "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Zones\0" /v 1201 /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
References
Thanks to David Kramer (U Minnesota - Moorehead) for his help.