Simpler fix for Visual Studio Class Designer Package load failure in VS 2005 after beta 2 uninstall

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A few weeks ago, I posted an entry describing a scenario where you may encounter package load failure error dialogs for the Class Designer Package while using the Visual Studio 2005 IDE after uninstalling VS 2005 beta 2 in an incorrect order and then installing a later CTP or the release candidate build. Since then I've had a few people contact me who had trouble getting the steps that I posted in that previous post to work, so I wanted to post a more straightforward set of steps that didn't require installing Orca and navigating through the VS MSI.

If you are running into this issue, I would first encourage you to download and use the updated version of the VS 2005 cleanup tool, which will automate cleaning up the files that cause this package load failure. Please note that this tool is only designed to help solve issues caused by previous beta versions of VS 2005 that were installed on your system. If you have not ever had a beta of VS 2005 on your system, this tool will likely not help you.

If you would prefer to clean it up manually, here are some more straightforward steps that will allow you to do so. Note that these steps assume that the machine has previously had VS 2005 beta 2 installed and that it was uninstalled in an incorrect order (meaning the order of uninstall listed here was not followed exactly). It also assumes that the machine has a later build of VS 2005 already installed.

  1. From a cmd prompt, run del %windir%\assembly\GAC_MSIL\ Microsoft.VisualStudio. EnterpriseTools.ClassDesigner\ 8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\ Microsoft.VisualStudio.EnterpriseTools.ClassDesigner.dll
  2. From a cmd prompt, run del %windir%\assembly\GAC_MSIL\ Microsoft.VisualStudio. EnterpriseTools.SdmDesigners\ 8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\ Microsoft.VisualStudio.EnterpriseTools.SdmDesigners.dll
  3. Extract the file FL_Microsoft_VisualStudio_EnterpriseTools__ 66768_____X86.3643236F_FC70_11D3_A536_0090278A1BB8 from the file _9160_RTL_x86_enu_WH_ED_AppDesigner.cab on the root of the VS DVD and rename it to Microsoft.VisualStudio.EnterpriseTools.SdmDesigners.dll
  4. Extract the file FL_Microsoft_VisualStudio_EnterpriseTools__ 92325_____X86.3643236F_FC70_11D3_A536_0090278A1BB8 from the file _15679_RTL_x86_enu_Whitehorse_Baseline.cab on the root of the VS DVD and rename it to Microsoft.VisualStudio.EnterpriseTools.ClassDesigner.dll
  5. From a cmd prompt, run %programfiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\bin\gacutil.exe /if Microsoft.VisualStudio.EnterpriseTools.SdmDesigners.dll
  6. From a cmd prompt, run %programfiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\bin\gacutil.exe /if Microsoft.VisualStudio.EnterpriseTools.ClassDesigner.dll

Note that I have inserted spaces into some of the commands above to force it to word wrap on the blog site. If you copy and paste these steps please remove the spaces before running the commands listed above.

<update date="7/21/2009"> Fixed broken link to VS 2005 beta cleanup tool. </update>