Issue With Registry Key of dfshim.dll

Question

I was getting error when opening ReportBuilder Application from my WPF app on a Windows Server 2012 machine with Report Builder 3.0 for Sql Server 2012.

As I workfound I deleted the registry key of dfshim.dll from below location:[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\dfshim.dll].

After this I am not getting any error and report builder is opening fine.

What is the use of this registry key and what will be the impact if I delete this entry? I am not removing the dfshim.dll but only deleting the registry entry.

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks

Cymbal

Answer 1

dfshim.dll is part of Microsoft's ClickOnce deployment technology. My guess is that ReportBuilder is being propagated to the client machine via ClickOnce. Looking at my entries in the key you mentioned, I see one entry entitled UseUrl=1 (dword). I assume this means true and probably has something to do with using the URL specified by ClickOnce to launch the application. I suspect that rather than deleting the key, if you set it to 0, you would probably achieve the same result. ClickOnce usually attempts to connect to the host URL when a request is made to launch an application to validate the most current version of the application is installed locally. I suspect deleting this key bypasses the network check and just runs the local copy.

If you hover over the ReportBuilder link make note of it and attempt to navigate to it directly. If the application does not open, then a network or firewall issue is possibly causing this problem.

Check your event viewer for any error logs too. They could help to triage the problem.

You may also want to take a peek at this Microsoft Connect post.

Guelph

Thanks for suggestion. I tried by setting the UseUrl=0, but no success. It is still giving the same error. There is nothing in event logs. Sorry, I forgot to mention in my question that the link is working fine from Internet Explorer and report builder opens. Also I am able to open the report builder from Report Manager. The error occurs only when I try to open the Report builder from WPF app. Below is my code snippet: System.Windows.Controls.WebBrowser wpfwb = new WebBrowser(); wpfwb.Navigate(new Uri("http://<servername>/ReportServer/ReportBuilder/ReportBuilder_3_0_0_0.applic‌​ation")); – Cymbal

Make sure that your have the full .NET4 runtime installed, and not just the client only. – Guelph

It's a Windows Server 2012 which contains .NET Framework 4.5. which also includes .NET Framework 4. I tried to reinstall the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (Standalone Installer) but it fails with the following error message - Microsoft .NET Framework 4 is already part of this operating system and Same or higher version of .NET Framework 4 has already been installed on this computer. – Cymbal