Environment
Reflection Desktop (including Pro, for IBM, or for UNIX and OpenVMS) 16.0 or higher
Situation
The following exception error occurs when attempting to start a Reflection desktop host session:
System.Reflection.TargerInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an Invocation.
---> System.InvalidCastException: Unable to cast COM object of type 'System._ComObject' to interface type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.Com.Types.IConnectionPointerContainer'.
This operation failed because the QueryInterface call on the COM component for the interface with IID '{B196B284-BAB4-101A-B69C-00AA00341D07}' failed due to the following error:
No such interface supported (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80004002 (E_NOINTERFACE)).
System.Reflection.TargerInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an Invocation.
---> System.InvalidCastException: Unable to cast COM object of type 'System._ComObject' to interface type 'System.Runtime.InteropServices.Com.Types.IConnectionPointerContainer'.
This operation failed because the QueryInterface call on the COM component for the interface with IID '{B196B284-BAB4-101A-B69C-00AA00341D07}' failed due to the following error:
No such interface supported (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80004002 (E_NOINTERFACE)).
Resolution
To resolve this issue, do one of the following:
1. Re-install Microsoft Windows. The registry key appears to get created at Windows install time.
2. Remove and reinstall the .NET interface may resolve this issue but has not been tested.
3. Export the registry key HKCR\Wow6432Node\Interface\{B196B286-BAB4-101A-B69C-00AA00341D07} from a working machine and import it into the registry on a machine that is displaying the issue. To perform this function, the user will have to have Admin permission on the HKCR tree in order to modify this section of the registry.
1. Re-install Microsoft Windows. The registry key appears to get created at Windows install time.
2. Remove and reinstall the .NET interface may resolve this issue but has not been tested.
3. Export the registry key HKCR\Wow6432Node\Interface\{B196B286-BAB4-101A-B69C-00AA00341D07} from a working machine and import it into the registry on a machine that is displaying the issue. To perform this function, the user will have to have Admin permission on the HKCR tree in order to modify this section of the registry.
Cause
A specific key is missing from the Windows Registry on the
machines that are displaying this issue. The key is located at
HKCR\Wow6432Node\Interface\{B196B286-BAB4-101A-B69C-00AA00341D07} and
this is a Windows created value for .NET which provides the managed
definition of the IConnectionPoint interface. See https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.runtime.interopservices.comtypes.iconnectionpoint(v=vs.110).aspx
for additional details.
The Reflection Desktop application relies on this key to interact with COM objects. It is unclear why this key could be missing as this key is not set or modified by the Reflection Desktop application. It appears that an unknown process, or potential malicious program may be modifying this default Windows component.
The Reflection Desktop application relies on this key to interact with COM objects. It is unclear why this key could be missing as this key is not set or modified by the Reflection Desktop application. It appears that an unknown process, or potential malicious program may be modifying this default Windows component.