Unable to load up the Spark 4.5.sln

Warren,  

Thank you so much for sharing your solution to this problem.
This is really helpful. 

I experienced the same problem.  In my case, it wasn't a problem with the solution or VS, but with the OS itself.  The issue is caused by the Automatic File Block feature in Windows 7.

Here's a link for a page that explains the problem.

http://digioz.blogspot.com/2013/06/visual-studio-2012-freezes-or-crashes.html

Here's a link explaining how to fix the problem.  It includes a link to the "Streams" tool download.  This is an MS Internals tool.

http://geekswithblogs.net/wildturtle/archive/2011/11/08/all-in-a-days-work-unblocking-multiple-downloaded-files-with.aspx

I followed the instructions and after everything was "unblocked", the solutions loads.

Best of luck.

Hello Paul:

You are the first to report this. So, I am not sure what to tell you.
It seems to be specific to your machine or setup. 
Possibly a VS 2012 re-install may be needed?

Regards. 
Jack