LLBLGen Pro's designer is a .NET 3.5 application and compiled against .NET 3.5, and with the compiler directive AnyCPU, which means that if you run the designer on a 32bit Windows installation it will be a 32bit application, but when you run it on a 64bit Windows installation it will be a native 64bit application. If you have both .NET 4.0 and .NET 3.5 installed, the designer will by default run on .NET 3.5 as that's the .net version it is compiled against.
This is fine by default, but in some cases you might need to run the designer on .NET 4.0 (for example if you are using assemblies compiled against .NET 4.0 with the designer like type converters). It also might be that you have to run the designer as a 32bit application on 64bit windows. The following two sub-sections describe how to do this. Note, if you want to run the designer on .NET 4.0 as 32bit application on 64bit windows, you have to modify the config file of the 32bit runner exe, LLBLGenPro_x86.exe.config, by uncommenting the sections as indicated in the config file to make it run on .NET 4.0. You can do that in a normal text editor.
In general you don't have to use any of the following specific .exe files, even if you are generating code for .NET 4.0, and simply use the normal LLBLGenPro.exe for starting the designer. They are only necessary if you want to do one of the described actions in the following sub sections and have to force the designer to be a 32bit application or should run on the .NET 4.0 CLR.
To run the designer as 32bit application on 64bit windows, you have to execute the application LLBLGenPro_x86.exe, which is located in the LLBLGen Pro installation folder. This application is a small 32bit application which will run the normal designer .exe as a contained process and therefore will enforce Windows to see it as a 32bit application. A shortcut is added to the start menu of Windows to make this easier.
You need to run the designer as 32bit on 64bit Windows if you want to use a 32bit only ADO.NET provider or OleDb driver. For example using MS Access as the target database does require the designer to be a 32bit application if you have to use the older '.mdb' compatible OleDb driver. If you use Office 2010 compatible .accdb MS Access files, you likely have the MS ACE driver installed which is 64bit compatible. Also when you're using ODP.NET for Oracle and have installed the 32bit variant, you have to run the designer as 32bit application otherwise the ODP.NET compatible driver won't be able to connect to the database.
To run the designer on .NET 4 instead of .NET 3.5 (which uses the .NET 2.0 CLR) and you have both installed, you have to execute the application LLBLGenPro_NET40.exe, which is located in the LLBLGen Pro installation folder, to run the designer on .NET 4.0, otherwise the designer will run on .NET 3.5. If you only have .NET 4.0 installed, it will automatically run on .NET 4.0 so you don't need to use this specific .exe. Similar to the 32bit runner LLBLGenPro_x86.exe, the application is a small 32bit application which will run the normal designer .exe as a contained process and therefore will enforce the normal designer .exe to be run on the .NET platform the LLBLGenPro_Net40.exe is running on, which is .NET 4.0. A shortcut is added to the start menu of Windows to make this easier.
The reason you might want to run the designer on .NET 4.0 instead of .NET 3.5 is when you're using one or more of the following:
The designer needs to run on the .NET 4 CLR in these cases because it otherwise won't be able to load the assemblies in-process and will therefore skip them as 'unloadable'. If you are using any of the above elements from assemblies compiled against .NET 3.5, you don't have to run the designer on .NET 4.0
Running the designer on .NET 4.0 and force it to be 32bit on
64bit windows.
To enforce the designer to run on .NET 4.0 and also as a 32bit
application on 64bit windows, you have to alter the file
LLBLGenPro_x86.exe.config which is located in the LLBLGen Pro
installation folder and uncomment
the following lines shown in Italics and Bold:
<startup> <!-- .NET 4.0 specific ==================== if the designer has to run on .NET 4.0 due to add-ins/plugins/other assemblies ran which are natively compiled against .NET 4.0 please uncomment the following line. --> <!--<supportedRuntime version="v4.0.30319"/>--> </startup>
and
<runtime> <!-- .NET 4.0 specific ==================== if the designer has to run on .NET 4.0 due to add-ins/plugins/other assemblies ran which are natively compiled against .NET 4.0 please uncomment the following line. --> <!--<legacyCasPolicy enabled="true" />--> ...
If you're using Windows 7 / Vista, and you have installed LLBLGen Pro
in the program files folder, be sure to edit the file as Administrator
otherwise Windows will make a copy of the file instead of overwriting it.