VB6 IDE cannot load MSCOMCTL OCX after update KB 2687323

Question

After windows update installed security update KB2687323  my VB6 project fails to load  Displayed error message is    project vbp path  MSCOMCTL OCX  could not be loaded--Continue Loading Project    Note that the path in the messeage is the vbp file folder path instead of the control s registered path   Details    MSCOMCTL OCX is registered in the usual system32 folder  The executable produced by exactly the same project  an hour before the update runs fine and loads the updated MSCOMCTL OCX  I have checked it with Process Explorer     The security update description states that MSCOMCTL OCX has a new fixed version  So I checked the project properties for  Upgrade ActiveX Controls  checkbox  I tried it both ways  checked and unchecked to no avail  VB6 IDE refused to load the upgraded OCX

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I continued to have problems after trying the things suggested here. In the end, it turned out that I had the wrong version of mscomctl.ocx in my SysWOW64 folder. I found the following versions kicking around:

Mar. 09, 2004  01:00 AM   1,081,616  mscomctl.ocx
Jun. 06, 2012  07:59 PM   1,070,152  mscomctl.ocx
Dec. 08, 2015  03:57 AM   1,070,232  MSCOMCTL.OCX

Getting the last one (1,070,232) solved this problem for me.

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The solution for me is to install this VB6 patch   I m on Server2008  32-bit     http   www microsoft com en-us download details aspx id 10019  It makes me sad that we re still talking about this in 2014    but here it is         From puetzk s comment  These are outdated  you want to be using Microsoft Visual Basic 6 0 Service Pack 6 Cumulative Update  kb957924

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I use win7 and has same problem  Today I solved this problem  through loading with many error with my project just give order to continue after that goto Project   Component    Microsoft Windows Common Controls 6 0  SP6  then save the project  file use was c  windows syswow64 mscomctl ocx

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The problem has been resolved by running the following in elevated command prompt   command    cd C  Windows System32  regtlib msdatsrc tlb   or  cd C  Windows SysWOW64  regtlib msdatsrc tlb   I hope this helps

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After hours of effort  system restore  register  unregister cycles and a night s sleep I have managed to pinpoint the problem  It turns out that the project file contains the below line   Object  831FDD16-0C5C-11D2-A9FC-0000F8754DA1  2 0 0  MSCOMCTL OCX   The version information  2 0  it seems was the reason of not loading  Changing it to  2 1  in notepad solved the problem   Object  831FDD16-0C5C-11D2-A9FC-0000F8754DA1  2 1 0  MSCOMCTL OCX   So in a similar  OCX could not be loaded  situation one possible way of resolution is to start a new project  Put the control on one of the forms and check the vbp file with notepad to see what version it is expecting     OR A MUCH EASIER METHOD     I have added this section after Bob s valuable comment below   You can open your VBP project file in Notepad and find the nasty line that is preventing VB6 to upgrade the project automatically to 2 1 and remove it   NoControlUpgrade 1

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I had this problem and tried many different solutions  They didn t work for me although I think this error occurs for a couple of different reasons  My solution is in my answer to this question here   https   stackoverflow com a 15785253 2240058  Its worth a try if nothing else is working for you

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On some computers  I ve found that the  2 0  version of MSCOMCTL OCX has been added to the ActiveX KillBits list  and thus the control won t be allowed to load or run--even in design view  Updating to the  2 1  version will resolve this  and is the recommended solution    In critical cases  where you have to run a program  now   or you don t have access to source code  or the control is used 400 times in a large modular project  you can use a  big hammer  method and update the registry to re-enable the control      WARNING  Editing the Windows Registry in the wrong way can mess up your computer big time  If you re not sure what you re doing  please leave it alone  or get some schooling before you proceed      The clear the KillBit           Run Registry Editor  regedit exe or regedt32 exe      In the left-hand panel  navigate to key HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Internet Explorer ActiveX   Compatibility BDD1F04B-858B-11D1-B16A-00C0F0283628      In the right-hand panel  double-click on    Compatibility Flags     change the value from Hex 0x400  Decimal 1024  to 0  then click OK      Launch the application that uses the  2 0  version of MSCOMCTL OCX  it should run as designed       The ActiveX KillBits list is intended to give Microsoft the means to disable controls that are deemed to be a security risk  and they ve designed the mechanism such that the ActiveX KillBits list will be re-applied to the system at seemingly random times  in addition to when an Update is installed  so you ll need to plan for re-applying the registry change  Making a registry merge file works pretty well  but it s not something you want to do everytime the app runs  because it s not a quiet process  there are ways to do this quietly using Windows Scripting  but you ll have to learn that on your own   The KillBit is checked only when the control is requested by an application  so you re safe from resets once the application launches and loads the control

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This problem mysteriously appeared for me today   I hadn t done any Windows updates  so I don t know the cause   This fixed it  in elevated command prompt    regtlibv12 exe msdatsrc tlb

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To Fix the Problem   Make a Batch file with the following code    echo off reg query  HKEY CLASSES ROOT typelib  831FDD16-0C5C-11D2-A9FC-0000F8754DA1  2 1  if  errorlevel   0 GOTO DELREGKEY if  errorlevel   1 GOTO REGISTEROCX   DELREGKEY reg delete hkcr typelib  831FDD16-0C5C-11D2-A9FC-0000F8754DA1  2 0  f   REGISTEROCX if exist  systemroot  SysWOW64 cscript exe goto 64   systemroot  system32 regsvr32  u mscomctl ocx  s  systemroot  system32 regsvr32 mscomctl ocx  s exit   64   systemroot  sysWOW64 regsvr32  u mscomctl ocx  s  systemroot  sysWOW64 regsvr32 mscomctl ocx  s exit

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The problem   Microsoft Office 2010 products  or later  install updates that break compatibility of MSCOMCTL ocx and COMCTL32 ocx  Unfortunately this affects many other programs such  Visual Basic 6 SP6 and even Oracle Virtual Box v5  The actual problem is HKEY CLASSES ROOT TypeLib  831FDD16-0C5C-11D2-A9FC-0000F8754DA1  2 0 registry key  You can find detailed background information about this problem here   Here is another working solution   The solution assumes you have not damaged your registry by deleting  replacing and re-registering MSCOMCTL ocx and COMCTL32 ocx without unregistering the Office patch files   Create a batch file called fix cmd and place the following commands in it   regsvr32  s  u  windir  SysWOW64 comctl32 ocx regsvr32  s  u  windir  SysWOW64 mscomctl ocx del  y  windir  SysWOW64 comctl32 ocx del  y  windir  SysWOW64 mscomctl ocx msiexec  passive  norestart  i KB2708437 msi msiexec  passive  a KB2708437 msi regtlib  windir  SysWOW64 msdatsrc tlb   Download from Security update for Visual Basic 6 0 Service Pack 6  August 14  2012 the msi file and rename it to KB2708437 msi   Note  A direct link to the Service Pack 6 download is located HERE   Run fix cmd and the problem will be fixed   What fix cmd does is to properly unregister and then delete the current MSCOMCTL ocx and COMCTL32 ocx files  and then apply the latest Visual Basic 6 SP6 rollup patch  In fact  the script enforces the patch to be installed and then re-installed by updating every file  regardless of version  Finally it registers msdatsrc tlb type library   Please let me know if this works for you                                                                           Advanced Solution   If however you have accidentally damaged your registry  you need to get as many versions of MSCOMCTL ocx and COMCTL32 ocx you can find  Then you need to start from the newer version going back to the older and register and unregister the ocx files   The latest version of MSCOMCTL ocx is 6 1 98 39  v2 1  of May 2012 which is more likely the one installed on your system and causing all your problems    The oldest  legacy  version is that shipped with Visual Basic 6 on 1998 6 1 97 82  v2 0   or the one shipped with an early service pack 6 1 97 86 on April 2005   Example   regsvr32  s comctl32 6 0 98 34 ocx regsvr32  s  u comctl32 6 0 98 34 ocx  regsvr32  s comctl32 6 0 81 6 ocx regsvr32  s  u comctl32 6 0 81 6 ocx   regsvr32  s comctl32 6 0 81 5 ocx regsvr32  s  u comctl32 6 0 81 5 ocx  regsvr32  s mscomctl 6 1 98 39  2 1  ocx regsvr32  s  u mscomctl 6 1 98 39  2 1  ocx  regsvr32  s mscomctl 6 1 98 34 ocx regsvr32  s  u mscomctl 6 1 98 34 ocx  regsvr32  s mscomctl 6 1 97 86 ocx regsvr32  s  u mscomctl 6 1 97 86 ocx  regsvr32  s mscomctl 6 1 97 82  2 0  ocx regsvr32  s  u mscomctl 6 1 97 82  2 0  ocx  regsvr32  s  u  windir  SysWOW64 comctl32 ocx regsvr32  s  u  windir  SysWOW64 mscomctl ocx  del  q  windir  SysWOW64 comctl32 ocx del  q  windir  SysWOW64 mscomctl ocx  msiexec  passive  norestart  i KB2708437 msi msiexec  passive  a KB2708437 msi  regtlib  windir  SysWOW64 msdatsrc tlb      WARNING    Do not search the internet for those files  To find different version of the OCX files download and extract official Microsoft Installer packages such as the following   2005 Apr - Microsoft KB896559  2008 Dec - Microsoft KB926857  2009 Apr - Microsoft KB957924  2012 May - Microsoft KB2708437  It is also recommended to run CCleaner version 4 0 or later to fix any other ActiveX related problems on your computer

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I had similar trouble  have a program running for last 10 years written in VB6  now client wanted to make some major modifications  and all my machines which are now windows 10  failed to open the project  it was always that nasty mscomctl ocx error  I had  done lot of things but could not solve the problem  Then I thought the easy way around  I downloaded the latest mscomctl   Then opened a new project  added all the components like mscomctl  activx controls etc  saved it and opened this newly created project file in Notepad  then copied the exact details and replaced in the original project     and bingo  The old project opened up normally without any fuss  I hope this experience will help someone

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I do not find NoControlUpgrade 1 on my vbp project   Instead  I develop on both xp and windows7 x64  When I moved the project from window 7 to xp  the error occurred    From what I find out  these are different   Object  831FDD16-0C5C-11D2-A9FC-0000F8754DA1  2 0 0  MSCOMCTL OCX  Object  831FDD16-0C5C-11D2-A9FC-0000F8754DA1  2 1 0  MSCOMCTL OCX   I just changed the  2 1 back to  2 0 on the vbp file and it can run immediately  These kind of problems occurred before  so hope Microsoft explain and solve them accordingly  Thanks

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I recently put all my source on a windows 8 32 box  Had the issues loading mscomctl ocx with existing projects   I  created a new project and add the common control  all   save the project and reloaded it no problem   when you compare the project headers new vs old the old one uses reference   blah blah  I found removing this a replacing it with the Object  blah  sorted out the problem

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For me  this solution worked like a charm  http   home pacific net hk  edx bin readmeocx txt  Fix these two lines like that   Object  F9043C88-F6F2-101A-A3C9-08002B2F49FB  1 2 0  COMDLG32 OCX Object  831FDD16-0C5C-11D2-A9FC-0000F8754DA1  2 0 0  MSCOMCTL OCX   Search the files   vbp and  frm  for lines like this   Begin ComctlLib ImageList ILTree Begin ComctlLib StatusBar StatusBar1  Begin ComctlLib Toolbar Toolbar1     The lines may be like this   Begin MSComctlLib ImageList ILTree  Begin MSComctlLib StatusBar StatusBar1 Begin MSComctlLib Toolbar Toolbar1

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Same problem with VBA Macros using MSCOMCTL OCX  Problem still unresolved with solutions like  reg unreg mscomctl ocx  Used the Info above of Rumi  Edited my   dot file  search for  2 0 0  change it to  2 1 0 --  it worked

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You may try to check your registry    HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SOFTWARE Classes TypeLib 831FDD16-0C5C-11D2-A9FC-0000F8754DA1    If it is 2 1 version  it will cause cannot load MSCOMCTL OCX issue   You may restore to 2 0 verion  not only copy the file  you should unregiser 2 1 and register the restored file   Or  You may try latest 2 2 version    https   support microsoft com en-us kb 3096896   file date  5-Nov-2015  https   www microsoft com en-us download details aspx id 50722   Some version information     6 0 88 62  2 0  6 1 97 82  2 0  6 1 98 34  2 1   lt  lt  lt  not work for me 6 1 98 46  2 2

[vb6] VB6 IDE cannot load MSCOMCTL.OCX after update KB 2687323

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