You might meet these questions in visual studio toolbox, and the items are not shown properly:

  • My code works if Visual Studio is already opened when my code executes.
  • My code works fine when executed outside of an installation project. 
  • If my code is executed from an installation project and Visual Studio is not opened, then ToolBox item is not added. I’ve added a "MessageBox" during the process and I can confirm that devenv.exe *is* executed. 

 

If you have any trouble using the toolbox items in visual studio, just delete the hidden files:

toolbox.tbd, toolbox_reset.tbd, toolboxIndex.tbd, toolboxIndex_reset.tbd

in

<drive>:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\VisualStudio\<VS version>

Ex:

C:\Documents and Settings\JAVIER.VILLARREAL\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0

Start Visual Studio, and it will reset the toolbox items in the correct form. following this, you can active items in visual studio toolbox immediately.