Introduction

Recently, an error occured on a PC with both Visual Studio .NET 2003 and Visual Studio 2005 installed, where new forms could no longer be added to a web project and new projects could not longer be created in VS2003. Upon trying to perform either task, an error message would display stating: "VC Package not available or not registered".

VC Package not available or not registered
 

Microsoft's web site offers a solution which involves using the Visual Studio 2003 installation CD-ROM and issuing a repair via the control panel. They state the error occurs because the Windows Installer is not registering the TLB and DLL files as they already exist. Issuing a repair re-registers the proper DLL files needed for Visual Studio 2003 to run properly. Microsoft states the steps to correct this are as follows:

Microsoft's Solution

1. On the Start menu, click Settings, click Control Panel. Click Add/Remove Programs.
2. On the list of installed programs, select Visual Studio .NET. Click Change.
3. Click the second item in the 1 2 3 Visual Studio Setup window.
4. Click the Repair or Re-install option and follow directions to repair.

On the particular PC in question, it is not certain what caused the error to start. Perhaps, installing too many applications or a rampant installer overwrote critical files used by Visual Studio. In either case, there is a much better solution than Microsoft's recommendation.

The Better Solution

The following solution comes from Martin Searle. Create a DOS batch file with the following lines in it. You can copy and paste them into a restorevs.bat file. You can also download this file.

REM -- Begin batch file

regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Visual Database Tools\vdt70.dll"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VS7Debug\pdm.dll"
regsvr32 /s "C:\winnt\system32\msdxm.ocx"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Crystal Decisions\1.0\Bin\ExportModeller.dll"
rem regsvr32 /s"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Folders\msonsext.dll"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VS7Debug\pdm.dll"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSDesigners7\msddslm.dll"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSDesigners7\msdds.dll"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Crystal Decisions\1.0\Bin\Cdo32.dll"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Designer\MSADDNDR.DLL"
rem regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Office10\MSO.DLL"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VS7Debug\msdbg2.dll"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Common7\Tools\VDT\vdt70p.dll"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSI Tools\mergemod.dll"
rem regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSEnv\vsext.olb"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\vcpackages\VCProject.dll"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Help\hxds.dll"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Common7\IDE\VsWizard.dll"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSDN\CookDoc.dll"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\vcpackages\VCProjectEngine.dll"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\vcpackages\resedit.dll"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\vcpackages\bined.dll"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Crystal Decisions\1.0\Bin\Cdo32.dll"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSEnv\dte.olb"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Common7\Packages\Compsvcspkg.dll"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Common7\IDE\vsmacros.dll"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Common7\Packages\Debugger\vsdebug.dll"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSDesigners7\msddsf.dll"
regsvr32 /s "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\vcpackages\vcpkg.dll"

REM -- End batch file

Run the batch file, all neccessary DLL files will be re-registered on your system for Visual Studio .NET 2003, and the error should now be corrected. Go ahead and run Visual Studio and try creating a new project.