VisualBuild error: "Class not registered"
 

I got a strange error recently with VisualBuild Pro 6.7a running on XP SP2.

If I run VisualBuild manually (not from the Scheduler) and build a single step, it displays an error dialog box:

"Initialization of Visual Build Pro builder component failed: Class not registered"

After you dismissed the error dialog box and try running any step, the error goes away. However, if you close and re-open VisualBuild, the error dialog box will come up once again for one time. The error dialog box also shows up if you click on the Help|About and it does not display the licensing information properly. After you close the error dialog and click on Help|About again, you won't see the error dialog and the licensing information is displayed correctly.

The VisualBuild scripts that run from the Scheduler do not seem to exhibit this problem.

We haven't heard of that when run manually, but a few users have encountered this when run from a scheduled task: http://www.kinook.com/Forum/showthre...?threadid=2691

VBP is calling CoCreateInstance for the CLSID of the Builder component, which is returning an error code of REGDB_E_CLASSNOTREG. One possibility is that some registry values are corrupt (you could try reinstalling VBP), but since it only happens sporadically, my guess is that something (active scanning virus or other resident software?) is sometimes interfering with the normal registry lookup. You could try disabling or uninstalling background apps, or start Windows in Safe Mode, to see if it helps isolate the problem.

The DCOM standard marshaller also gets involved in the creation process (oleaut32.dll, registry key
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00020424-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} and others), and if any of that is messed up it can cause issues as well.

Other options would be to repair Windows or repave the machine (format drive and reinstall Windows).

I think this somehow has something to do with how VisualBuild reads the licensing information from the registry.

Somehow, when you run a buildstep or click on Help|About it would need to retrieve your licensing key. The first time, it tries to read the license key, it would display the error message and not display my license key properly in the Help|About. Any subsequent tries seems to succeed as I am able to see my license key in the help about and I do not see the error dialog box anymore.

However, if I close and restart VisualBuild it goes through the same issues again.

I have turned off the virus scanner and removed/re-install VisualBuild numerous times to no avail.

When I run a RegMon, I noticed that VisBuildPro.exe has numerous "BUFFER OVERFLOW" errors when reading the licensing information from this registry key: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Licenses". This led me to think something is whacky with VisualBuild not reading my license key properly on the first try, but succeed on subsequent retries with the same session.

VBP v6 doesn't create the builder component until a) the first time a build is initiated or b) the About dialog is shown. I do see some BUFFER_OVERFLOW results when querying under HKLM\Software\Licenses, but they're immediately followed by a successful call to the same key (apparently with a larger buffer), so I don't think that's the problem.

At any rate, we use a third-party component to implement licensing (and don't create/lookup license info directly in our code), but I suspect that uninstalling and reinstalling would reinitialize this information.

On the machines that work; I click once on the Help|About dialog box and it displays my licensing information properly at the bottom.

On this machine with the problem; I need to click on Help|About twice (and dismiss the error dialog in between) in order for my licensing information to be displayed (i.e. it does not show the "Registered to" information on the first click of the Help|About menu).

If VBP isn't able to initialize the builder component, it won't be able to display license information, since it retrieves the information from it. Apparently, the second time creating works, but I have no idea why it doesn't work the first time on that particular machine. The symptoms suggest that something is sometimes interfering with the normal COM creation logic.

Please ZIP and send to support@kinook.com:
1) The info from Help | About | Install Info
2) A screen shot of System properties (Windows+Break)
3) The RegMon log (filtered on visbuild) for starting VBP and showing the About dialog

Since it does work from a scheduled task, another option might be to create a task, then right-click and Run the task to manually start VBP.

I have email the information requested.

Thanks.

Everything in the regmon log looks consistent with what I get from a machine that doesn't manifest this problem. I would suggest trying some of the other suggested workarounds.