PRB: Visual Basic Displays Incorrect Edition Splash Screen

Q149619

The information in this article applies to:

SYMPTOMS

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. For information about how to do this, view the "Restoring the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or the "Restoring a Registry Key" Help topic in Regedt32.exe.

After installing the Professional or Enterprise Edition of Visual Basic, the Startup splash screen displays Standard Edition. Any attempt to use the Professional or Enterprise controls or features fails and shows the error message:

License file not found.


CAUSE

Visual Basic and all custom controls store licensing information under the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\LICENSES key. The keys under this key correspond to components in the Visual Basic environment, third party .OCX files, and other Windows applications. If there is any damage to this key, the licensed components cannot retrieve their licensing information and fail to load properly or fail to load at all.

This problem is most prevalent on Windows 3.x machines where the registry is limited to 64K of data. Information stored beyond this 64K boundary cannot be read. Many applications now use OLE and other technologies that require registration. As a result, a registry size above 64K is not uncommon. Because so much of the information includes remnants of removed or upgraded software, a periodic cleaning is recommended. This can be accomplished by using Regcln16.exe from the Visual Basic for Windows 4.0 CD-ROM.

This problem can and does occur on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, and Windows 2000 machines, although it is far less frequent. The registry is not limited to 64K on these platforms, so the problem is usually registry corruption. Although the size of the registry is not limited, it can benefit from a periodic cleaning using Regclean.exe.


WORKAROUND

To work around this issue in Windows 3.x:

  1. Uninstall Visual Basic.


  2. Delete OC25.DLL.


  3. Rename Reg.dat and restart Windows.


  4. Reinstall Visual Basic and all other software packages that use the registry.


WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys and Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT or Windows 2000, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).

To work around this issue in Windows 95 and Windows NT:
  1. Using a registry editor, delete the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\LICENSES key.


  2. Run Regclean.exe.


  3. Delete OLEPRO32.DLL.


  4. Restart Windows and reinstall Visual Basic.


NOTE: The preceding methods are generally more successful, but the method to follow works under 64K (Windows 3.x) and if the registry is not corrupted. This method does not interfere with any other applications.

Alternative Method

  1. Install Visual Basic.


  2. Run Regclean.exe (Windows 95, 98, NT, or 2000) or Regcln16.exe (Windows 3.x)


  3. Delete the \LICENSES key.


  4. Launch the File Manager and select the \SETUP directory on the Visual Basic CD-ROM.


  5. Use the Extract.exe utility to find and decompress the Visual Basic registration file. To do this, in the Run dialog box (on the File menu, Run submenu), type:

    EXTRACT.EXE /A /L C:\WINDOWS\ VB4-1.CAB *.REG

    Press ENTER. (This assumes C:\WINDOWS\ is the Windows directory of the machine.)


  6. Use Regedit.exe to register the registration files. To do this, in the Run dialog box (on the File menu, Run submenu) type:

    REGEDIT.EXE OLE2.REG

    Press ENTER. Then type:

    REGEDIT.EXE VBxxx.REG

    Press ENTER.

    (This assumes xxx is PRO or ENT, depending on the version.)


  7. Reinstall third party custom controls and any software that may use the registry to store licensing information.



STATUS

The LICENSES key is corrupt or is missing the Professional or Enterprise licensing information and cannot be read properly. Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows, version 4.0.

Additional query words: SetIns

Keywords : kbnokeyword kbVBp kbVBp400 kbVBp500 kbGrpDSVB kbDSupport
Issue type : kbprb
Technology :


Last Reviewed: January 9, 2001
© 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of Use.