Terraria no longer starts after 1.2 update, terminates with unhandled exception

I have had the game, Terraria for a while and it has always worked fine for me. Recently, a new update, 1.2, came out, and Steam updated the game to that version. After that, Terraria no longer starts up. Even if I run it as administrator, or from cmd. From cmd, there is no error. After entering the command, I am immediately allowed to type again. Nothing happens at all. I do not see any dialog telling me Steam is starting the game, but my friends are told that I am playing it, then that I am no longer playing it, shortly after.

Here is the error I found in Event Viewer:

Application: Terraria.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.TypeInitializationException
Stack:
   at Terraria.Main..ctor()
   at Terraria.Program.Main(System.String[])

Here's what I've done to fix the problem:

• Reinstall Terraria
• Reinstall the XNA Framework 4.0
• Did not reinstall .NET, but it works with Visual Studio (version 4.5, which is technically just an update to 4.0). Plus, I repaired it, which is, so far as I know, an equivalent to reinstallation.
• Verify game cache integrity. This is the strange part. I am always told that the cache is invalid, then Steam redownloads the required file, and the cache is invalid after verifying again.
• Restarting my computer
• Repairing the XNA Framework in the Terraria folder
• Set Terraria to compatability mode for XP SP2, which worked for the initial update, but a new bugfix makes it so that no longer works.

Here are my system specs:

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Manufacturer LENOVO
System Model    IdeaCentre K430
System Type x64-based PC
Processor   Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2320 CPU @ 3.00GHz, 3001 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date   LENOVO E8KT24AUS, 2/16/2012
SMBIOS Version  2.7
Windows Directory   C:\Windows
System Directory    C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale  United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer  Version = "6.1.7601.17514"
Time Zone   Eastern Daylight Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 16.0 GB
Total Physical Memory   16.0 GB
Available Physical Memory   8.21 GB
Total Virtual Memory    31.9 GB
Available Virtual Memory    22.4 GB
Page File Space 16.0 GB
Page File   C:\pagefile.sys

What can I do to get the game to work? I can verify that it did work before with .NET 4.5, so that is not the problem. Can someone help me get a hint as to what's wrong? Thanks.

Solution 1:

According to numerous sources (one, two) it's in fact related to .NET installation. In order to repair it, you need to uninstall both XNA Framework, and .NET Framework.

Using "Programs and Features":

1. Uninstall Terraria
2. Uninstall all XNA stuff
3. Uninstall all .NET Framework stuff ("extended" must be uninstalled first!)
4. Reboot
5. Reinstall Terraria and let it reinstall the .NET and XNA stuff.