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Does anyone else have this problem?

The full message in the status bar says,

Loading toolbox content from package 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.IDE.ToolboxControlsInstaller.ToolboxInstallerPackage' {D766DAA8-F81E-4621-9184-F21C7F389796}

This usually happens whenever I open a xaml file and VS sits there, unresponsive, for about 2 minutes.

Ronnie Overby
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6 Answers6

40

This usually happens when opening the Toolbox (CTRL-ALT-X), or moving the mouse over the Toolbox icon (which appears on the left).

According to this Connect issue report, there's a workaround to be done, which may fix the issue:

He said he simply removed the registry key under:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\
   VisualStudio\10.0\Packages\{D766DAA8-F81E-4621-9184-F21C7F389796}

and the problem went away. Read more on that link.

  • Be sure to take a backup of whatever registry changes you make!
Abel
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lysergic-acid
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    For me, the registry key is: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Packages\{2c298b35-07da-45f1-96a3-be55d91c8d7a}] – Samuel Apr 25 '12 at 14:30
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    I had the same key as @Samuel. Infragistics. – dirq Jun 01 '12 at 15:26
  • I was facing a crash everytime I placed the mouse over the toolbox. VS said this in the bottom status bar just before the crash: "Loading toolbox content from pacakge 'Microsoft Report Designer' {F3A96850-E2AE-4e00-9278-8FE23F225A0D}". following this answer, I removed the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Packages\{F3A96850-E2AE-4e00-9278-8FE23F225A0D}. Problem fixed :) – Sudhanshu Mishra Jul 30 '12 at 13:52
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    I think you need to be careful about deleting the {2c298.... package entry. This package is responsible for letting tool vendors automatically add toolbox items to your Visual Studio for you. The reason you see this take so long is that one of the tool packages is crashing and the package doesn't handle that well. So you have two options, either remove this package entirely and have to install all your toolbox items manually or find the culprit item that is crashing the toolbox control installer. For me, it was "WCF RIA Services 1.0 SP2" installed by Silverlight 5. – James Johnson Oct 02 '12 at 04:12
  • @JamesJohnson Is there any particular approach you would recommend as to how to find the culprit? Can you see a list of the suspects anywhere? – Tormod Oct 03 '12 at 12:32
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    @Tormod sorry for the delay I was out of town. I believe this is the key that the ToolboxControlsInstaller package looks at when determining whether it needs to install controls `HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\ToolboxControlsInstaller` any of the subkeys under it are the assemblies that the TCI will check for controls to install. The only thing I can suggest, if you don't have "WCF RIA Services 1.0 SP2" that caused issues for lots of other people is to isolate those keys one at a time until you find the one that stops causing the toolbox to lock up. – James Johnson Oct 08 '12 at 02:29
  • +1 Thanks, a ton! I have no clue why it happened, no new changes as far as I know. Just opened VS and it would freeze b4 loading. Also, my key was the same as Samuel pointed out 2c298b... Thanks again! – Garrett Fogerlie Jan 07 '13 at 21:58
  • Ran into this after installing updated Telerik reporting toolkit. The reg entries for the new version were correct, but the project was still referencing the old Telerik.Reporting.dll version. – JeffSahol Jun 13 '13 at 16:54
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    Don't delete the key; otherwise, your third-party controls will not install into the toolbox. When I did this, all my DevExpress and Infragistics controls would not install. – AMissico Oct 22 '13 at 00:34
  • "WCF RIA Services 1.0 SP2" was causing the issue in my case too. I've uninstalled it and the startup is back at 5-6 seconds flat. – Daniel Bogdan Oct 13 '15 at 17:51
17

I was facing the same problem and also tried to solve it by deleting to registry key(s). But the problem returned after a while. The keys where back again.

But, I found at each key has settings for toolbox with the value 1, like:

...{2c298b35-07da-45f1-96a3-be55d91c8d7a}\Toolbox]
"Default Items"=dword:00000001

You can find this setting in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\ShellExtensions\Platform\BaseConfig.pkgdef, line 8395.

I changed the value from 1 to 0 ("Default Items"=dword:00000000) in all {2c298b35-07da-45f1-96a3-be55d91c8d7a}-keys and the file mentioned before.

The problem seems to be fixed, since over two weeks. The fix before worked less than one day.

Littm
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developer10214
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    +1 thanks for this - the marked answer in this thread only worked for a couple of days for me too. Then the same problem returned. Turning OFF security scanning on VS project files also improved the time it took to open Visual Studio. – Jeremy Thompson Nov 18 '12 at 20:32
  • I did this but the symptom reoccurred after a while. So I changed registry accordingly to make it work again. That is, I changed value of `Default Items` to 0 in `HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Packages\{2c298b35-07da-45f1-96a3-be55d91c8d7a}\Toolbox` – Tae-Sung Shin Apr 20 '15 at 18:21
  • I try to change value from 1 to 0 ("Default Items"=dword:00000000) in all {2c298b35-07da-45f1-96a3-be55d91c8d7a}-keys, but get error "Access to baseconfig.pkgdef was denied.". What is the problem? –  Jul 20 '15 at 04:35
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  1. Start Visual Studio 2010 commandprompt
  2. type in devenv.exe /log "c:\Users\\Desktop\vslog.txt"
  3. Just work normally in your visual studio 2010.
  4. after your work close visual studio and check the log file (vslog.txt)
  5. Search for "package load took" or "2C298B35-07DA-45F1-96A3-BE55D91C8D7A"

You might then find something like this:

  <entry>
    <record>574</record>
    <time>2012/09/14 07:36:45.386</time>
    <type>Information</type>
    <source>VisualStudio</source>
    <description>Toolbox: package load took 0 ms, ResetDefaults call took 12230 ms</description>
    <guid>{2C298B35-07DA-45F1-96A3-BE55D91C8D7A}</guid>
  </entry>

Now you can search the registry key and delete it (make sure VS2010 is closed).

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Packages{2‌​c298b35-07da-45f1-96a3-be55d91c8d7a}]

Maybe you will see other clues to your problem in the log file.

Make sure you BACKUP the registry or any other settings you make.

Learn more about visual studio switches: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xee0c8y7(VS.100).aspx The bug report on Microsoft Connect: http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/735555/silverlight-5-tools-bug-loading-toolbox-content-from-package-microsoft-visualstudio-ied-toolboxcontrolsinstaller-toolboxinstallerpackage-2c298b35-07da-45f1-96a3-be55d91c8d7a

extra info: http://michaelcrump.net/fixing-a-broken-toolbox-in-visual-studio-2010-sp1

juFo
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  • good to know, for some people I have learned it didn't. So it is something that you should consider :) – juFo Feb 22 '13 at 07:45
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    This resolved my issue - the first time I clicked on any control in the WinForms designer, it would take forever (minutes) with the "Loading toolbox content" message but now it takes only seconds. – David McClelland May 02 '13 at 14:32
  • This solution worked for me. Thanks. One note however: after deleting the registry key and re-opening Visual Studio for the first time, the VS window was blank for at least 30 seconds. I waited till it was finished working. Then I shut VS down again, and reopened a second time. The second time it was fast. – Tim May 03 '13 at 16:24
  • @Smitty i don't use telerik and had the same. – juFo Feb 15 '14 at 11:28
  • @Smitty i also don't use telerik. – juFo Dec 05 '14 at 07:52
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    I dug back into this later and yes the "extra info" link also fixed my problem. You were correct - it was not related to Telerik, my mistake. – Chris Smith Sep 05 '15 at 00:43
  • I ran Windows Update which applied 17 updates that were queued up for my Visual Studio 2010 sp1. Rebooted and the problem came back. I had to again perform the steps mentioned in the "extra info" link and again it fixed the issue. So it appears updates to VS 2010 _may_ re-trigger the problem so I would note if Windows Update is about to update VS and re-apply the fix afterwards. – Chris Smith Sep 28 '15 at 20:07
1

I had the same issue. I started VS with logging enabled as explained here. Once VS had started and froze on attempting to load the toolbox, I read the log file. I searched for "Warning" and the first entry was the following.

<entry>
    <record>39</record>
    <time>2013/03/07 22:30:32.671</time>
    <type>Warning</type>
    <source>VisualStudio</source>
    <description>The CTM file is out of date and should be deleted and rebuilt, but the file &apos;C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\1033\devenv.CTM&apos; could not be deleted.</description>
</entry>

I ran VS as administrator, waited until it locked up. I used task manager to kill the VS process. I ran VS as administrator once again, and used task manager to kill the process. I then ran VS as I normally would. It took a moment to load the toolbox items, but didn't freeze. I closed VS again, and opened it as I normally would, and it loaded instantly as it normally would.

Anthony
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I just ran into this. I do have phone tools installed. For me, it seemed to be caused by a second network connection I have that connects to a device. Disconnecting the device to remove that network connection worked for me.

Banjo Batman
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0

when I go for opening a project in Visual studio 10, then I was getting below status message "Loading toolbox content from package 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.IDE.ToolboxControlsInstaller.ToolboxInstallerPackage'" This message stay their for 1+ minute & Visual studio goes hang.

To resolve this as per above instruction i follow steps to remove Key from registry key but given registry path was wrong for Windows 8. For Windows 8 correct path is as below "[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Packages[Registery key no.]"

user3497864
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