Knowledge Base

PRB: "License Information for This Component Not Found" Error

Article ID: 177799

Article Last Modified on 8/15/2007

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Learning Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Control Creation Edition

This article was previously published under Q177799

SYMPTOMS

When you try to add a control to a form, the following message may appear:

License information for this component not found. You do not have an appropriate license to use this functionality in the design environment.

CAUSE

When a control is installed for run time use only (such as those installed by an application created with Visual Basic), if the Visual Basic Development Environment is installed onto the same machine afterwards and the existing control is of equal or higher version than that from the CD, the license key for that control is not updated.

RESOLUTION

If the control in question is any of the ones listed below, then find and double-click on the file Vbctrls.reg on the Visual Basic CD-ROM:

AniBtn32.ocx
Gauge32.ocx
Graph32.ocx
Grid32.ocx
KeySta32.ocx
MSOutl32.ocx
Spin32.ocx
Threed32.ocx

This will update the design-time licenses for these controls. For Visual Basic 5.0, Vbctrls.reg is found in the \Tools\Controls folder. For Visual Basic 6.0, it is found on Disk 1 in the \Common\Tools\Vb\Controls folder, and for Visual Studio 6.0, it is in the same folder of Disk 3. The Visual Basic 6.0 CD-ROM also contains these files for the Visual Basic 5.0 Custom Controls that were discontinued in Visual Basic 6.0:

Dbgrid.reg
Mschart.reg

For more information, please refer to the Readme.txt file in the same folder.

If the control in question is not among the controls listed above, please do the following:

Locate Regsvr32.exe on your machine. Note its path.
Locate the offending OCX file(s), usually found in the Windows\System folder for Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me, or the Windows\System32 folder for Windows NT and Windows 2000.
On the Start menu, click Run.
In the Run dialog box, type the following:

<Path to RegSvr32>\REGSVR32.EXE /u <Path to OCX>\OCXFILE.OCX

For example:

C:\Devstudio\VB\REGSVR32.EXE /u C:\Winnt\System32\COMCTL32.OCX

NOTE: If Regsvr32.exe is in the System or System32 folder, the path is optional.

If you are reinstalling an older version of the control, you should delete/remove the .OCX, .OCA and .DEP files so they will be replaced.
Repeat the previous 3 steps for each offending OCX.
On Control Panel, click Add\Remove Programs.
Select Visual Basic, and click Add\Remove.
Click Reinstall when the options (Add\Remove, Remove All, Reinstall) dialog box appears.

Reapply the latest Visual Studio Service Pack, which can be obtained from:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa718359.aspx

If the problem persists, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

181854 FILE: VB5cli.exe Fixes Visual Basic 5.0 Control Installation Problem

194751 FILE: VB6Cli.exe Fixes License Problems with Visual Basic 6.0

195353 FILE: VBUSC.EXE Provides Licensing for Discontinued Controls

STATUS

Microsoft is researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

Set up a Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT, or Windows 2000 machine, Machine A, without Visual Basic 5.0 installed. Then set up a development machine, Machine B, with Visual Basic 5.0 and Service Pack 3 installed.
On Machine B, create a Standard EXE project. Form1 is created by default.
Add the following component (OCX) to the Toolbox:

Comctl32.ocx

Add at least one control from this OCX to Form1.
Compile and save the project.
Create a setup application using the Visual Basic Application Setup Wizard, selecting all default options.
Install the application onto Machine A.
Install Visual Basic 5.0 on Machine A.
Start a Standard EXE project and add Comctl32.ocx to the Toolbox.

Try to add any of the controls from this OCX, and this error message appears:

License information for this component not found. You do not have an appropriate license to use this Functionality in the design environment.

REFERENCES

Please see the RESOLUTION section of this article for additional Microsoft Knowledge Base articles. For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

172193 INFO: List of VB 4.0 Custom Controls Discontinued in VB 5.0

Additional query words: vbctrls

Keywords: kbpubtypekc kbctrl kberrmsg kbpending kbprb kbregistry kbtophit KB177799

Microsoft KB Archive/177799

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