title: The referenced component 'System' could not be found. (or any other component for that matter)
body: <p><strong>Issue:</strong> Just started today, all references to any assembly outside of the solution fail to resolve, with <code>The referenced component 'SomeComponent' could not be found.</code> when trying to build.  This happens for both 3rd party components (all 15 or so of them) as well as all .NET Framework assemblies - basically anything that isn't another project in the same solution.</p>
  
  <p>Trying to load some other solutions produced the same issue. Creating a new WinForms project worked without a problem, however. (Scratch that, it worked before reinstalling VS, now that doesn't work either. I created a new WinForms app as well as a WPF app, and the designer can't load the assemblies either. I tried targetting 3.5 and 2.0 and no luck.)</p>
  
  <p><strong>Things I've tried:</strong> </p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Repair Visual Studio installation</li>
  <li>Rebooting computer</li>
  <li>Started VS with /resetsettings flag</li>
  <li>System Restore to 2 days ago when it was known to be working</li>
  <li>Uninstalling VS and reinstalling</li>
  <li>Fresh checkout from SVN</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Does anyone have any experience with this and know of a way to get this working again?  My strongest Google-fu has failed me, so I'm asking here.  Can mark community wiki if requested.</p>
  
  <p>Update:
  I tried "upgrading" Windows (to the same version) since I didn't see a repair option for Vista and it's still a no-go. I reinstalled everything that seemed relevant. So far, it's looking like I'm just gonna have to back up and reformat I guess unless a solution comes up sometime before tomorrow.</p>
  
  <p>Update2:
  I just backed up data and reformatted, so I'm no longer able to verify any ideas that I haven't tried yet, so I'll just leave the bounty to expire on its own to the top voted answer and as a reference to anyone else who may have this problem later.</p>