Visual Studio do not add my component (from a DLL) to the toolbox even if I reference it

I had this problem with @AndrewFinnell's solution:

There are no components in 'c:....\XXXX.dll' that can be placed on the toolbox.

So I solved with drag and drop:

  • open Windows explorer and navigate to the DLL
  • drag the DLL and drop it on Visual Studio in the Toolbox, exactly where you want your components to appear.

I also realized that some components may have compatibility issues with certain .NET Framework versions. For instance A Professional Calendar/Agenda View That You Will Use seems not to work with .NET 4.5, while it does with .NET 4.


  • Right-click in the toolbox.
  • Click "Choose Items..."
  • Click "Browse..."
  • Navigate to your DLL and click Open
  • Then click "Ok"

Your components should then show up


The way I found to make this working is:

  1. Add the dll, reference it
  2. Compile the project
  3. Save the solution and restart visual studio

And then controls show up in toolbox (not always working, I think is a sort of visual studio bug)