Visual Studio Express crashes at launch (CLR20r3)

Hi. I'm trying to get started with Visual Studio Express Desktop 2013 but when I launch the wdexpress.exe application it immediately crashes with a CLR20r3 error. I have tried repairing the app, also doing a full uninstall and reinstall, and still get the same error.

I see that lots of people are getting this error in other contexts but in my case it's completely impossible to do anything with the IDE before it crashes. Does anyone have a fix or tip about this?

Here is the problem signature if it's at all useful:

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Problem signature:
  Problem Event Name:CLR20r3
  Problem Signature 01:wdexpress.exe
  Problem Signature 02:12.0.21005.1
  Problem Signature 03:524fb501
  Problem Signature 04:Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.12.0
  Problem Signature 05:12.0.21005.1
  Problem Signature 06:524f7c4f
  Problem Signature 07:a86
  Problem Signature 08:64
  Problem Signature 09:System.InvalidOperationException
  OS Version:6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
  Locale ID:1033
  Additional Information 1:0a9e
  Additional Information 2:0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
  Additional Information 3:0a9e
  Additional Information 4:0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789