"Failed to initialize the VCL for .NET Form Designer" when starting BDS 2006

• Product Name: Borland Developer Studio
• Product Version: 2006
• Product Component: C++ Builder
• Platform/OS Version: Windows

Description:

An error may occur when starting BDS 2006, stating "Failed to initialize the VCL for .NET Form Designer."

Answer/Solution:

The error typically references a CLSID and is often accompanied by several similar errors.

These errors indicate that the installer wasn't able to register certain .NET assemblies used by the BDS 2006 IDE. They can be resolved by figuring out which assemblies aren't registered and then running "regasm" on them. There are two ways this can be done.

One way is to open the Registry Editor and search the Registry for each CLSID. That will reveal which .tlb files are involved. After this, go to the C:\Program Files\Borland\BDS\4.0\Bin directory and run "regasm" on the corresponding .dll file. For instance, if the search in the Registry find that a CLSID is associated with Borland.Studio.Interop.tlb, then go to the BDS 2006 \Bin directory on the command line and issue the "regasm Borland.Studio.Interop.dll" command.

The other way this can be solved is simply the blanket approach of registering all possible assemblies. To do this, navigate to the BDS \Bin directory on the command line and say "dir Borland.Studio.*.tlb" to list all relevant .tlb files. Then, run "regasm" on the corresponding .dll file for each.

After the above, restart BDS 2006.