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I'm moving an old project developed with Delphi 2007 and a bunch of 3rd party components from an old computer to my own instalation. Everything except the TF1Book component (from the VCF132.ocx library, version 4.1.1.2) works fine. I'm using the exact same version of Delphi in the new computer and same patches. (The older computer belongs to a developer who left the company and it's unavailable and unreachable)

The error I'm getting in design time, and just in design time is:

License information for TF1Book not found. You cannot use this control in design mode.

So, I can still compile and can edit the .dfm form in notepad and works fine, in runtime, but I can't work properly within Delphi.

Please, note that I have read the first 30 entrys for each google search related to this problem, with several variations. And most of them says that I should simply run the regsvr32 to register the OCX within Windows and that will solve the problem. But also, most of this posts or blogs I've found are way older, and they're talking about the version 3.x of the component. I am using the 4.1.1.2 version. This is what the other developer had in his computer.

I repeated the supposed procedure of placing the VCF132.ocx on the \windows\system32 or the windows\syswow64 (for x64 windows) and then run the appropriate regsvr32 version to register the component in 3 computers: Win 7 x86, Win 7 x64, Win 8 and WinXP SP3 and got the same result in all of them.

I'm starting to think that this is a real licensing issue, not a ocx windows registering issues. Actually, if I don't register de OCX in Windows the error I get in Delphi is very different, it is something about class not found or similar.

Nobody else in the company (a small 3 guys company) knows or remember how this was component acquired and therefore we can't find the proper installer for the components.

Though, by researching the Windows registry in that computer I found information about some sort of registration process, like User, Company and a Serial number. There are no ".lic" files associated to this ocx in the old computer.

But so far, I'm unable to find such installer in that computer. I would be happy to simply acquire a new license, but this product is not being sold anymore.

So, this is my question. For the VcF132.ocx, version 4.1.1.2, does anybody knows/remember if there were a copy protection or registration mechanisms that would forbid me to simply move the component to other computer?

Craig Stevensson
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I used to use this component way back when. As I recall, registering the OCX only gives you runtime support. To get it all working at designtime you need to run, on your dev machine, the installation program that the vendor supplied.

I also distinctly remember that there was a .lic file installed onto each developer machine. So you should find them on the old machines, but I'm not sure whether they can be easily transferred.

David Heffernan
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  • Thanks for your response, David. I have searched on that computer for ".lic" files and I can't find any. Could that ocx be hacked or "patched"? This particular system was a personal project that developer brought into the company, but now he left, went to another country and his customers are asking for changes. We could just still using that particular computer for development, but we would want to be able to move that project out of it. – Craig Stevensson Feb 05 '13 at 19:50
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    I don't have a machine that has it installed on at the moment. But on my server I have an image of the folder that was created in Program Files after installation (I also have the installer!) And in that folder is VCF1.lic. I remember trying to copy folder images around and it not working at design time. The installer clearly does something special. This is why you need to have everything under revision control, and have your entire development environment re-buildable. – David Heffernan Feb 05 '13 at 20:02
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    We stopped using F1 when they changed the licensing model and wanted royalties. It was pretty clear that there was no future with F1. We ended up with DevExpress ExpressSpreadsheet. The big advantage is that is shipped as code so we can always build it, port it if necessary. The product isn't as good as F1 was, and the code is dire. We fixed soooo many performance problems and plain bugs. But by having source we were able to do all of that and remain in full control. That's the key. – David Heffernan Feb 05 '13 at 20:05
  • Thanks for keep replying. I've just searched again, and can't find such VCF1.lic file in the installation directory which is barely 13 files and a "Redist32" subdirectory. I wonder if we're talking about the same version, 4.1.1.2 version. Would you mind to share the name of file for the installer you have so I'll try to find it in that computer? – Craig Stevensson Feb 05 '13 at 20:20
  • That installation directory looks reasonable, mine has one more file. Probably the .lic file. Perhaps I pulled the .lic file from the system32 folder. Take a look there perhaps. Search the entire system drive for .lic files. My version is 4.1.0.5. The installer is a bunch of files. With a setup.exe. It looks like an old-school 16 bit InstallShield job. We are talking about a 16 year old product! – David Heffernan Feb 05 '13 at 20:24
  • Thank you very much for everything! – Craig Stevensson Feb 06 '13 at 17:58