Hi Will,
Although we run Enterprise here, I would fully expect the Community edition to run the WinForms sample app. That error sounds like something is blocking the copy, and not that VS can't run it. Perhaps you accidentally were already running the Sample Browser app and thus VS wasn't able to overwrite the file since it's in use? For instance if you clicked "Actipro WinForms Controls Sample Browser" from the Windows Programs menu group that was installed, that is running the C# version of the SampleBrowser.exe in that target location and would cause that error.
Just make sure you close the Sample Browser app before running the project and it should work. You could try running the VB version of the project to see if that runs too, since that won't interfere with the one from the Windows Programs menu.
For the licenses.licx file, did you install with the default options? What happens if you remove the lines in that file? But it should work with those and those are required for full product licensing in your apps.