“Failed to update the system registry” message on startup on limited user account

Symptoms

When you try to start Metafile Companion (or any other OLE server Windows program built with an older version of the Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC) library) on a “limited” (restricted) user account, the following warning message appears:

Failed to update the system registry. Please try using REGEDIT.

Cause

There was a bug in code generated by the MFC AppWizard that is the source of the problem. For more details, see:

Microsoft KB article 254957: BUG: Registry update code may fail when an unprivileged user runs an MFC OLE server on Windows 2000

Note: This problem can occur on Windows 2000, XP, Vista and later versions that restrict registry access for limited user accounts.

Work-around(s)

The message can be safely ignored for standalone use of the program. Simply press OK and use the program as normal. Or the user can log on to a “Computer administrator” account to avoid this message.

Fix

This problem was fixed in Metafile Companion v1.2.0.