This is a relatively new issue for us, the first case of which came up in early April. The symptom is that on opening Toolkit, an box appears stating "Error initializing VBscript". Clicking OK makes the error box go away, and Toolkit seems to operate as normal, except it won't display a First Impression screen for new stocks any more.
From our research, the most common reason we have seen for this error is that some version of McAfee software was installed on the computer at some point, and after being remove/un-installed, it did not fully change back a default setting connected to running VBscript on the computer.
If you were using McAfee software in the past and have removed it, this is likely the reason you are seeing the error when trying to use Toolkit.
In that case, McAfee provides a tool to fully remove and reset the changes made by their security program. We suggest to close Toolkit, then download and run the following file:
http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/MCPR.exe
After running this file, restart the computer, and then try Toolkit again; you should find that it operates correctly now.
While we haven't run into it so far, we have also seen reports online that Avast! security software can have the same effect. If you were using Avast! at some point, and have uninstalled it, you may be running into a similar issue. In that case, Avast! also provides a more complete software removal tool. This tool requires some extra steps. The explanation can be found at:
http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility
If you have not been using McAffe or Avast, and still run into the error, it may be possible to manually adjust/correct the issue. This adjustment requires some digging into the computer registry, so it should not be attempted unless you are fairly confident regarding your computer abilities.
If you are not, then we suggest to present the following information to a local computer technician, and ask them to make the change:
1. Open Regedit
2. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{B54F3741-5B07-11cf-A4B0-00AA004A55E8}\InprocServer32
3. When you select InprocServer32, there will be an entry on the right-hand side of the page named (Default)
4. Double-click on this. The entry should be either C:\Windows\system32\vbscript.dll - OR- vbscript.dll
5. Change the entry to the longer format, click OK, and then close the registry.
6. Try Toolkit again.
--NOTE: The settings noted above woudn't need to be corrected unless there had been some outside influence on them. Usually that means a security program made an adjustment so that VBscript requests from programs like Toolkit were effectively run through a screener in the security software. When that software gets removed, suddenly the detour becomes a dead end. The bigger problem is that as part of the detour, the ability for you to manually change the setting back to it's default can also be deactivated. This is why we suggest to have someone familiar with Windows take a look at the steps listed above; they will likley have to do some additional work to reset the permissions on the computer that would normally allow you to make these sort of changes.