PowerShell send-MailMessage fails: "Configuration system failed to initialize"

Question

I am running Server 2003 x86, and I have PowerShell 2.0 installed. When I type send-MailMessage in PowerShell, I get this error: "Configuration system failed to initialize".

I get a similar error when I type New-Object -typename System.Net.Mail.MailMessage: Exception calling ".ctor" with "0" argument(s): "Configuration system failed to initialize".

Answer 1

From Googling, I suspected a problem with my .NET configuration. It turned out to be some junk in machine.config. After I cleaned up the file, I restarted PowerShell, all worked.