The control migration wizard is extremely useful add-in that saves a lot of time by replacing standard VB controls with Unicode equivalents automatically.

But there is a problem: with some forms the wizard will just die with "encountered unexpected error and needs to close".
After that, your VB project is screwed and you need to clean up some mess that wizard leaves behind. Once cleanup is done, you can retry the process and it will be completed without errors (of course you don't know which properties for which control will remain unassigned because wizard has died before it had chance to complete the control).
I cannot tell exactly which controls cause wizard to die, but can confirm it is reproducible and always happens to certain forms.

Today I had to convert a bigger VB component with 15 forms in it, and it took me hour and a half just to replace controls, because of the need to clean the mess and retry, clean again and retry etc etc almost for each form within this project.

Denis

Denis,

Well the control migration wizard is designed to work in the majority of cases but there will always be times where is cannot complete the process. Of course you should back up your project before you start and if you do have complex forms consider deleting them from your project if you encounter errors.

Nico,

If I delete complex forms from the project, how am I supposed to convert them to Unicode? Deleting and adding controls manually one-by-one? I think it would make more sense if wizard could complete the process, or at least warn me if there is something it can't handle, but not die on me like this, messing up the project.

The funny thing is, it is not at all about complex forms. Try this: create a new VB project, add one standard frame, then put one standard textbox into this frame. Set MultiLine property of the textbox to True. Add references to "Unitoolbox controls" and "UnitoolboxVB controls". Save the project to disk.
Now open control migration wizard, pick "Custom" and load "UnitoolboxAll.utd" template. Push Next button. Say hello to dr. Watson.

Please remember this is only one of the situations that brings wizard down. Can you do something about this?

Denis

Denis,

I hear your frustration, however the wizard can only ever go so far in completing the process. For 95% of the projects it will work extremely well. I have suggested a workaround which you can use for the occasional form which does not work.

Its worth bearing in mind that VB itself is an outdated application and no longer supported by Microsoft. VB.NET has unicode support nativly.