Error message "bordbk50.dll not registered"

Problem/Question/Abstract:

When starting a debug session under Delphi 5.0, many people receive the error message stating "bordbk50.dll not registered". Borland CBuilder 5 has similar issues with library bordbk51.dll.

Answer:

What is the problem?

“Bordbk” is the debugger kernel (“BORland DeBug Kernel”).
There is a bug in the installation program which fails to register this DLL. Some people believe that this occurs only on systems where a certain registry editor command-line tool is not on the search path – this is not true since I experienced the problem also.
It looks like Borland made a mistake both in their Delphi 5.0 and CBuilder 5 installation scripts.

Solution

The good news is that there is a simple solution. Check on your hard disk for the missing file. The default location is

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Borland Shared\Debugger\bordbk50.dll

Then open a DOS shell, go into that directory and type in this command:

Regsvr32 bordbk50.dll

Regsvr32 is the aforementioned command-line editing tool. It will register the DLL. If regsv32 is not in you path then you will need to prefix it with the full path.