BadImgeFormatException when trying to start an application after reinstalling Windows 8.1

Question

BadImgeFormatException when trying to start an application after reinstalling Windows 8.1

I hope this question will not be viewed as a duplicate, as I know there are many similar questions on stackoverflow. I need to know. I've already read most of them. So bear with me ...

I am writing a C # application that relies on the OpenCV libraries to work. OpenCV libraries are written in C ++ code and to use them in C #, I wrote 2 libraries: a static library containing the methods that I want to get from OpenCV; CLR DLL that acts as a bridge between the static lib and the C # project.

What bothers me is that everything works fine until I reinstalled Windows 8.1 due to a virus. Before reinstalling, the application is compiled and works as expected. After reinstalling, the same project throws "BadImageFormatException" when trying to debug:

namespace G19_GUI
{
   static class Program
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// The main entry point for the application.
        /// </summary>
        [STAThread]
        static void Main()
        {
            Application.EnableVisualStyles();
            Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
            Application.Run(new GUI.GUI()); //this is the line producing the exception
        }
    }
}

Additional information: Could not load file or assembly 'clrLib, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' or one of its dependencies. An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format.

I know that the most common reason for this exception is when the application is trying to load a 32 bit library into a 64 bit compiled application, or vice versa. Thus, I have confirmed that the OpenCV libraries I am trying to use are intended to be used in a 32-bit application, and this is indeed the case. I tried to switch to 64-bit DLLs, which caused 39 errors like "LINK2028: Unresolved token".

Be aware that the project itself has not changed between the two Windows installations. I used the same property sheet and the same OpenCV libraries. Everything was saved on an external drive, which was disabled at the time when I stupidly double clicked the virus executable and made a backup to DropBox, the only thing I had to do after reinstalling Windows was resetting the environment and environment variables of OpenCV which I was using using a .bat file, the same .bat file that was used to set the same variables when you first installed Windows Therefore, I highly doubt the possibility of a virus infection with the project files. However, I double checked everything and found nothing wrong.

I started to document the exception online. As a result, I decided to try every possible combination of config builds and target platforms on which I dared to be patient to try all three projects I had in my solution.

Indeed, trying to build and compile for a 64-bit machine threw the exception, but the other DLL my C # project depended on was intended to be 32-bit, and when trying to load that DLL, the same exception occurred (as expected). Unfortunately the DLL does not come with a 32 bit version or source code to try and build my 64 bit version of the said DLL.

Thus, I am forced to create my application both for target platforms (any processor, mixed platform, and for any) or only for 32-bit. Which of course throws a startup exception.

I know that all my DLLs are built for 32-bit use. For my life, I can't figure out what the problem is and why this problem didn't exist before I reinstalled os.

Below is the code of my cllLib dll:

#include "Stdafx.h"
#include "clrLib.h"
#include <vector>

namespace clrLib
{
    public ref class mapper
    {
private:
    static openCVProc * myProc;
public:
    static mapper(void)
    {
        myProc = new openCVProc();
    }

    char * mapStringToChar(String ^ path)
    {
        return (char*)(void*)Marshal::StringToHGlobalAnsi(path);
    }

    array<int>^ getRGBfromHSV(int h, int s, int v)
    {
        array<int>^ values = gcnew array<int>(3);
        std::vector<int> myVals = myProc->hsv2rgb(h, s, v);
        values[0] = myVals[0];
        values[1] = myVals[1];
        values[2] = myVals[2];

        return values;
    }

    array<int>^ getHSV(String^ src)
    {
        array<int>^ vals = gcnew array<int>(3);

        vals[0] = (myProc->getHSV(mapper::mapStringToChar(src)))[0];
        vals[1] = (myProc->getHSV(mapper::mapStringToChar(src)))[1];
        vals[2] = (myProc->getHSV(mapper::mapStringToChar(src)))[2];
        return vals;
    }

    void openCam()
    {
        myProc->startCam();
    }

    void closeCam()
    {
        myProc->stopCam();
    }

    int^ getBrightness()
    {
        int^ b;
        b = myProc->getB();
        return b;
    }

    bool^ camState()
    {
        return myProc->camState();
    }

    array<Byte>^ mapper::getFrameData()
    {
        cv::Mat f = myProc->getFrame();
        int width = f.cols;
        int height = f.rows;

        array<Byte>^ bitmapData = gcnew array<Byte>(width*height * 3);
        int c = 0;
        for (int i = 0; i < height; i++)
        {
            for (int j = 0; j < width; j++)
            {
                bitmapData[c] = f.at<cv::Vec3b>(i, j)[0];
                bitmapData[c + 1] = f.at<cv::Vec3b>(i, j)[1];
                bitmapData[c + 2] = f.at<cv::Vec3b>(i, j)[2];
                c += 3;
            }
        }

        return bitmapData;

    }

    Size^ mapper::getFrameSize()
    {
        std::vector<int> size = myProc->getFrameSize();
        Size^ frameSize = gcnew Size(size[0], size[1]);
        return frameSize;
    }
};