Troubleshooting an issue where TortoiseSVN commands may not run on Windows 8.1

Applies to: TortoiseSVN 1.14.6 on Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2

This article addresses a problem where TortoiseSVN commands may not run if you have Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2. This problem is known to occur with TortoiseSVN version 1.14.6. It doesn't occur on newer versions of Windows or with earlier versions of TortoiseSVN.

Note
Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 have already reached End of Life. These versions of Windows are no longer covered by Mainstream or Extended Support by Microsoft. So it is recommended to upgrade the operating system to a newer and supported version.

Symptoms

  • Inability to run some TortoiseSVN commands (e.g., unable to show differences by means of TortoiseMerge). Running a command silently fails without displaying any error messages.
  • Running TortoiseSVN commands fails with the following error message:
    TortoiseMerge.exe - Entry Point Not Found
    The procedure entry point SetThreadDpiAwarenessContext could not be located in the dynamic link library C:\Program Files\TortoiseSVN\bin\TortoiseMerge.exe.

Cause

Although TortoiseSVN 1.14.6 version can be installed on Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2, it relies on some Win32 API functions that are only available starting from Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016. The inability to access certain Win32 API functions leads to the issues outlined in the Symptoms section.

To check the installed version of TortoiseSVN, please follow these steps:

  1. Right click in Windows File Explorer to open the context menu.
  2. Select TortoiseSVN | About.
  3. The version of TortoiseSVN running is specified in the first line of the 'Version Information' section.

So if you have TortoiseSVN 1.14.6 version running on Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2, you will encounter issues specified in the 'Symptoms' section of the article. To resolve the issues, please proceed to the 'Resolution' or 'Workaround' section below.

Resolution

To resolve the problem, it is recommended to upgrade the operating system of the computer which has TortoiseSVN installed.

Workaround (without upgrading the OS)

As a temporary workaround, you can downgrade TortoiseSVN to version 1.14.5 (the last version known to be compatible with Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2).

Follow these steps to downgrade TortoiseSVN to version 1.14.5:

  1. Download an appropriate version of TortoiseSVN 1.14.5, depending on your platform:
  2. Run the installer and follow the directions on the screen to complete the installation.

TortoiseSVN will be downgraded to version 1.14.5 at the end of the procedure.

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