The ‘Runtime Error (at -1:0): Cannot import dll:<utf8>%AppData%\Local\VCLStylesSkin\VclStylesIno.dll.’ error is encountered when uninstalling application

Applies to
All ApexSQL applications

Summary
This article explains how to resolve an issue which prevents uninstall process of ApexSQL tools. Once the uninstall process is initiated, the ‘Runtime Error (at -1:0): Cannot import dll:<utf8>%AppData%\Local\VCLStylesSkin\VclStylesIno.dll.’ error is encountered’ error is encountered and uninstall process is immediately terminated.

Cause

As the error message suggests, the reason why this error is encountered because the VclStylesIno.dll file does not exist in the specified location. Reason behind lies in the fact that this file is created when the application was created in the User\AppData folder only for the specific user which was used to install the application.

This means that in case when a different user is used to uninstall the application than the one that was used to install it, the above-mentioned file will be missing from the respective folder and uninstall process will hence fail.

Resolution

As mentioned above, the solution for this issue is to ensure that the VclStylesIno.dll file exists in the appropriate location (%AppData%\Local\VCLStylesSkin\VclStylesIno.dll).

In case the user used to install the tool is available, it can be used to uninstall ApexSQL applications.

Or, the missing file can be copied over from one users %AppData%\Local\VCLStylesSkin\ to the same folder (which should be created first) of the user which encountered the issue.

Finally, if there is no access to the ‘original’ user, or to the VclStylesIno.dll file, the file can be downloaded from here, and then copied over to the users %AppData%\Local\VCLStylesSkin\ folder.