Cleaning Up a Corrupt Install

TECH TIP: Cleaning up a Corrupt Installation

If you have been advised by Digital Metaphors technical support that you may have a corrupt installation, or if you are having difficulty installing, compiling or running applications after a ReportBuilder install, then it may be necessary to manually remove all ReportBuilder files from your system. Corrupt installations usually result when you are installing over a previous version of ReportBuilder which was not installed into the default directory, which was recompiled from the source, or when ReportBuilder files were manually moved from the default install location.  Cleaning up a corrupt installation, consists of locating all ReportBuilder related files, and deleting them from your system.  The first step is to use the uninstall program to remove as much of ReportBuilder as possible.

Step 1: Run the uninstall program
  1. Exit Delphi, and all other applications.  You should have no applications running except the uninstall, otherwise you may lose some of your work.
  2. Select Start | Settings | Control Panel from your Windows desktop.
  3. Double-click the Add/Remove programs icon.
  4. Locate the version of ReportBuilder you wish uninstall and double-click it.
  5. The first page of the Uninstall Wizard allows you to choose between a Repair or Uninstall.  Choose Uninstall and click the Next button.
  6. Wait for the uninstall process to complete.  NOTE: If this process fails, cancel the uninstallation process and continue on to Step 2.  Step 4 describes how to manually remove the ReportBuilder entry from the Control Panel Add/Remove dialog.
  7. Click the Finish button.  ReportBuilder will be removed from the system.
  8. After all the ReportBuilder files are removed, you may be prompted to reboot the system.  If this is the case, reboot the system.

Step 2: Delete the ReportBuilder root directory (and all subdirectories)
    1. Using the Windows Explorer, locate the ReportBuilder root directory. The default directory is:
C:\Program Files\Borland\DelphiX\RBuilder
C:\Program Files\CodeGear\RAD Studio\X.0\RBuilder
C:\Program Files\Embarcadero\RAD Studio\X.0\RBuilder
  1. Once you have located this directory, inspect it. If you have any custom work in this directory which you would like to keep, move it to another directory.
  2. Delete the ReportBuilder root directory.

Step 3: Delete all remaining ReportBuilder files
    1. 1. Using the Windows Explorer, search the entire hard drive for all occurrences of:
dclRB*.bpl
dclRB*.dcp
rb*.bpl
rb*.dcp
    1. Delete any occurrences which correspond to the version you are removing.  All packages are named with the convention <name>NN, where the first number is the ReportBuilder version and the second number is the Delphi version.  Thus, a typical package name for Delphi 5 would be rbRCL45.bpl.  The same package for Delphi 4 would be: rbRCL44.bpl.  Check Installing ReportBuilder for a list of the packages associated with each version.
    2. Using the Windows Explorer, search your hard drive for all occurrences of:
pp*.*
da*.*
ra*.*
  1. These are the prefixes used by individual ReportBuilder units.  ‘pp’ is used for ReportBuilder units, ‘da’ is used for DADE units, and ‘ra’ is used for RAP units.  Depending on which ReportBuilder you have (Standard, Professional or Enterprise) you may not have all of these unit types.

Step 4: Remove the ReportBuilder entry from the Add/Remove Programs dialog (if needed)
  1. Open RegEdit by clicking the Windows Start button, typing “regedit”, and hitting enter.
  2. Navigate to one of the following registry keys depending on the architecture of your machine.Windows (64 bit):HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ReportBuilder XX for Delphi XXWindows (32 bit): HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ReportBuilder XX for Delphi XX
  3. Copy the “Uninstall String” key value for the location of the copied install files.
  4. Navigate to the folder location in previous step and delete all files then root folder itself.  (You may need to show hidden files in the Windows Explorer to do so).
  5. Delete the entire registry key in #2.
  6. Restart your machine and check that the ReportBuilder entry has been removed from the Add/Remove Programs dialog.

 

Additional Notes

  1. Never have Delphi running when installing ReportBuilder.
  2. All ReportBuilder related files should be stored in the root directory $(DELPHI)\RBuilder.
  3. All ReportBuilder run-time packages should be stored in the Windows\System directory.
  4. You should never have ReportBuilder files in Delphi\Lib, Delphi\Bin or Delphi\Projects\Bpl.
  5. Step 4 is only necessary if Step 1 fails and the ReportBuilder entry cannot be removed.