How to reproduce: public partial class Form1 : Form { public Form1() { InitializeComponent(); this.radGridView1.DataSource = this.GetData(); this.radGridView1.AutoSizeColumnsMode = Telerik.WinControls.UI.GridViewAutoSizeColumnsMode.Fill } private DataTable GetData() { DataTable dt = new DataTable(); dt.Columns.Add("Id", typeof(int)); dt.Columns.Add("Name", typeof(string)); dt.Columns.Add("Age", typeof(int)); dt.Columns.Add("Date", typeof(DateTime)); dt.Columns.Add("Bool", typeof(bool)); for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++) { dt.Rows.Add(i, "Name " + i, i + 10, DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(i), i % 2 == 0 ? true : false); } return dt; } private void radButton1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { this.radGridView1.Columns[1].Expression = "Id * Age"; } private void radButton2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { string s = "default.xml"; SaveFileDialog dialog = new SaveFileDialog(); dialog.Filter = "xml files (*.xml)|*.xml|All files (*.*)|*.*"; dialog.Title = "Select a xml file"; if (dialog.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK) { s = dialog.FileName; } this.radGridView1.SaveLayout(s); } private void radButton3_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { string s = "default.xml"; OpenFileDialog dialog = new OpenFileDialog(); dialog.Filter = "xml files (*.xml)|*.xml|All files (*.*)|*.*"; dialog.Title = "Select a xml file"; if (dialog.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK) { s = dialog.FileName; } this.radGridView1.LoadLayout(s); } } Workaround: iterate the columns prior to loading the layout and remove the expressions private void radButton3_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { foreach (GridViewDataColumn col in this.radGridView1.Columns) { col.Expression = ""; } string s = "default.xml"; OpenFileDialog dialog = new OpenFileDialog(); dialog.Filter = "xml files (*.xml)|*.xml|All files (*.*)|*.*"; dialog.Title = "Select a xml file"; if (dialog.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK) { s = dialog.FileName; } this.radGridView1.LoadLayout(s); }