Rift S unusable on Windows 11 — Meta Horizon Link Setup instantly crashes in clr.dll

Rift S unusable on Windows 11 — Meta Horizon Link Setup instantly crashes in clr.dll, old runtime sees headset but no tracking/black screen

I’m trying to get my old Oculus Rift S working again and I’ve now spent about 8 hours troubleshooting this.

My PC is:

• Intel i9-14900K
• RTX 3080
• 32 GB DDR5
• Windows 11, build 10.0.26200.9457
• MSI Z790 GAMING PLUS WIFI

The main problem is that the current official Meta Horizon Link / Oculus Setup installer will not launch at all. It flashes briefly and immediately crashes before the installer UI opens.

Reliability Monitor shows:

Application: Setup.exe_Oculus Setup Version: 1.115.0.0 Fault Module: clr.dll CLR Version: 4.8.9345.0 Exception Code: c0000005 Exception Offset: 0001ccf0

An unrelated program, LGMonitorAppManager, has also crashed in the same clr.dll with the same c0000005/offset, although the rest of my PC works normally. Games, launchers, Windows, etc. are generally stable.

Things I have already tried:

• Fresh official Meta installer
• Run as administrator
• Running installer from C: and H:
• Setup.exe --unattended /drive=H
• Deleted %LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp\OculusSetup-*
• Freed C: space from ~6 GB to ~30 GB+
• DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
• sfc /scannow
  • SFC DID find corrupted Windows files and repaired them
• Rebooted after DISM/SFC
• .NET Framework 4.8.1 is installed
• Current .NET cumulative update is installed
• Microsoft .NET Framework Repair Tool finds nothing useful
• Basic WPF test works:

Add-Type -AssemblyName PresentationFramework [System.Windows.MessageBox]::Show("WPF test")

• Tried changing/removing monitor ICC/color profiles
• Camera privacy permissions are enabled
• Tried Meta Setup after all of the above — same exact crash

Because the official installer refused to run, I also tried an older preserved/offline Oculus runtime.

With the old runtime I got much further:

OVRService = running OVRServer_x64.exe = running

Windows Device Manager detects:

Rift S Rift S USB Hub Rift S imaging/camera device Rift S audio devices Oculus Virtual Audio Device

The headset LED changes from orange to white.

SteamVR also detects the Rift S. The proximity sensor works — SteamVR changes state when I put the headset on.

However:

Headset display = completely black Tracking = not working SteamVR says headset is not tracking VR View renders SteamVR Home on the monitor, but the view does NOT move when I move the headset

So the headset is being detected, but no usable tracking pose/display session is being initialized.

The old Oculus software can reach the old Oculus login screen, but that old login/setup flow obviously isn’t very useful anymore.

I also found individual Rift S drivers online such as:

riftssensor.inf Rift S sensor driver 1.0.0.1 riftsusb.inf Rift S USB Hub driver 1.0.0.8

but Windows already appears to have Rift S sensor/USB drivers installed, so I suspect the missing piece is the actual Oculus/Meta runtime/session initialization rather than simple USB drivers.

At this point I’m trying to figure out:

1. Is there any known fix for Meta Horizon Link Setup.exe 1.115.0.0 crashing immediately in clr.dll with c0000005?
2. Is there a way to install the current Meta/Oculus PC runtime without using this Setup.exe?
3. Is there a complete offline installer/cache/MSI for the Rift S runtime?
4. Can a working Meta/Oculus installation be copied from another PC?
5. Is there any way to initialize a Rift S using the old runtime without completing the obsolete Oculus login/setup flow?
6. Does anyone have a known-good modern Rift S runtime installation that still works on current Windows 11?

I’m specifically trying to use the Rift S for SteamVR / Skyrim VR, so I mainly need working tracking, display output, and the Oculus runtime — I don’t care about Oculus Home/store features.

Any help from someone who still uses a Rift S on current Windows 11 would be appreciated.