Microsoft Excel ActiveX Controls Disabled

Question

I have some Excel worksheets that use ActiveX checkboxes to control certain activity   They worked recently but today started to give errors   I was alerted to this by a colleague  but it was still working on my computer   I checked his version of Excel against mine and his was newer   I noticed there were new Windows updates  so I did the update   After I applied pending updates  it now no longer works on my computer   I cannot check the ActiveX checkboxes any longer  and  as a part of trying to debug  it appears I cannot even add an ActiveX control to any worksheet  even a new worksheet  any more   I get an error dialog that says   Cannot insert object     I can still add form controls  just not ActiveX    Anyone else experiencing this after a recent update   Any suggestions   Thanks   Mike

User · Answer

Simplified instructions for end-users  Feel free to copy paste the following   Here   s how to fix the problem when it comes up    Close all your Office programs and files  Open Windows Explorer and type  TEMP  into the address bar  then press Enter  This will take you into the system temporary folder  Locate and delete the following folders  Excel8 0  VBE  Word8 0 Now try to use your file again  it shouldn t have any problems    You might need to wait until the problem occurs in order for this fix to work  Applying it prematurely  before the Windows Update gets installed on your system  won t help

User · Answer

I m an Excel developer  and I definitely felt the pain when this happened  Fortunately  I was able to find a workaround by renaming the MSForms exd files in VBA even when Excel is running  which also can fix the issue  Excel developers who need to distribute their spreadsheets can add the following VBA code to their spreadsheets to make them immune to the MS update   Place this code in any module   Public Sub RenameMSFormsFiles      Const tempFileName As String    MSForms - Copy exd      Const msFormsFileName As String    MSForms exd      On Error Resume Next      Try to rename the C  Users  user name  AppData Local Temp Excel8 0 MSForms exd file     RenameFile Environ  TEMP    amp    Excel8 0    amp  msFormsFileName  Environ  TEMP    amp    Excel8 0    amp  tempFileName     Try to rename the C  Users  user name  AppData Local Temp VBE MSForms exd file     RenameFile Environ  TEMP    amp    VBE    amp  msFormsFileName  Environ  TEMP    amp    VBE    amp  tempFileName  End Sub    Private Sub RenameFile fromFilePath As String  toFilePath As String     If CheckFileExist fromFilePath  Then        DeleteFile toFilePath         Name fromFilePath As toFilePath     End If   End Sub  Private Function CheckFileExist path As String  As Boolean    CheckFileExist    Dir path   lt  gt        End Function    Private Sub DeleteFile path As String     If CheckFileExist path  Then        SetAttr path  vbNormal         Kill path     End If   End Sub       The RenameMSFormsFiles subroutine tries to rename the MSForms exd files in the C  Users  user name  AppData Local Temp Excel8 0  and C  Users  user name  AppData Local Temp VBE  folders to MSForms - Copy exd   Then call the RenameMSFormsFiles subroutine at the very beginning of the Workbook Open event   Private Sub Workbook Open      RenameMSFormsFiles   End Sub   The spreadsheet will try to rename the MSForms exd files when it opens  Obviously  this is not a perfect fix    The affected user will still experience the ActiveX control errors when running the VBA code the very first time opening the spreadsheet  Only after executing the VBA code once and restarting Excel  the issue is fixed  Normally when a user encounters a broken spreadsheet  the knee-jerk reaction is to close Excel and try to open the spreadsheet again     The MSForms exd files are renamed every time the spreadsheet opens  even when there s no issue with the MSForms exd files  But the spreadsheet will work just fine    At least for now  Excel developers can continue to distribute their work with this workaround until Microsoft releases a fix   I ve posted this solution here

User · Answer

Here is the best answer that I have found on the Microsoft Excel Support Team Blog     For some users  Forms Controls  FM20 dll  are no longer working as   expected after installing December 2014 updates  Issues are   experienced at times such as when they open files with existing VBA   projects using forms controls  try to insert a forms control in to a   new worksheet or run third party software that may use these   components        You may received errors such as         Cannot insert object   Object library invalid or contains references   to object definitions that could not be found       Additionally  you may be unable to use or change properties of an   ActiveX control on a worksheet or receive an error when trying to   refer to an ActiveX control as a member of a worksheet via code    Steps to follow after the update       To resolve this issue  you must delete the cached versions of the   control type libraries  extender files  on the client computer  To do   this  you must search your hard disk for files that have the   exd    file name extension and delete all the  exd files that you find  These    exd files will be re-created automatically when you use the new   controls the next time that you use VBA  These extender files will be   under the user s profile and may also be in other locations  such as   the following         appdata  Microsoft forms       temp  Excel8 0       temp  VBE      Scripting solution       Because this problem may affect more than one machine  it is also   possible to create a scripting solution to delete the EXD files and   run the script as part of the logon process using a policy  The script   you would need should contain the following lines and would need to be   run for each USER as the  exd files are USER specific       del  temp  vbe   exd      del  temp  excel8 0   exd      del  appdata  microsoft forms   exd      del  appdata  microsoft local   exd      del  appdata  Roaming microsoft forms   exd      del  temp  word8 0   exd      del  temp  PPT11 0   exd      Additional step       If the steps above do not resolve your issue  another step that can be   tested  see warning below           On a fully updated machine and after removing the  exd files  open the file in Excel with edit permissions       Open Visual Basic for Applications   modify the project by adding a comment or edit of some kind to any code module    Debug   Compile   VBAProject       Save and reopen the file  Test for resolution  If resolved  provide this updated project to additional users       Warning  If this step resolves your issue  be aware that after deploying this updated project to the other users  these users will   also need to have the updates applied on their systems and  exd files   removed as well          If this does not resolve your issue  it may be a different issue and   further troubleshooting may be necessary        Microsoft is currently working on this issue  Watch the blog for   updates    Source

User · Answer

The best source of information and updates on this issue I could find is in the TechNet Blogs    The Microsoft Excel Support Team Blog  as mentioned    Form Controls stop working after December 2014 Updates  Updated March 10  2015   On March 2015 a hotfix was released in addition to the automated fix-it and manual instructions  and it s available on Windows Update as well   The latest update and fix from Microsoft   3025036  Cannot insert object  error in an ActiveX custom Office solution after you install the MS14-082 security update     STATUS  Update March 10  2015       Hotfixes for this issue have been released in the March 2015 Updates for Office 2007  2010  amp  2013     General info about the problem      For some users  Form Controls  FM20 dll  are no longer working as expected after installing MS14-082 Microsoft Office Security Updates for December 2014  Issues are experienced at times such as when they open files with existing VBA projects using forms controls  try to insert a forms control in to a new worksheet or run third party software that may use these components        https   technet microsoft com en-us library security ms14-082 aspx      You may receive errors such as     Cannot insert object    Object library invalid or contains references to object definitions that could not be found    The program used to create this object is Forms  That program is either not installed on your computer or it is not responding  To edit this object  install Forms or ensure that any dialog boxes in Forms are closed           Additionally  you may be unable to use or change properties of an ActiveX control on a worksheet or receive an error when trying to refer to an ActiveX control as a member of a worksheet via code    Manual and additional solutions      Scripting solution       Because this problem may affect more than one machine  it is also possible to create a scripting solution to delete the EXD files and run the script as part of the logon process using a policy  The script you would need should contain the following lines and would need to be run for each USER as the  exd files are USER specific    del  temp  vbe   exd del  temp  excel8 0   exd del  appdata  microsoft forms   exd del  appdata  microsoft local   exd del  temp  word8 0   exd del  temp  PPT11 0   exd      Additional step       If the steps above do not resolve your issue  another step that can be tested  see warning below           On a fully updated machine and after removing the  exd files  open the file in Excel with edit permissions    Open Visual Basic for Applications   modify the project by adding a comment or edit of some kind to any code module    Debug   Compile VBAProject    Save and reopen the file  Test for resolution          If resolved  provide this updated project to additional users       Warning  If this step resolves your issue  be aware that after deploying this updated project to the other users  these users will also need to have the updates applied on their systems and  exd files removed as well

User · Answer

Advice in KB and above didn t work for me   I discovered that if one Excel 2007 user  with or without the security update  not sure of exact circumstances that cause this  saves the file  the original error returns   I discovered that the fastest way to repair the file again is to delete all the VBA code   Save   Then replace the VBA code  copy paste    Save   Before attempting this  I delete the  EXD files first  because otherwise I get an error on open   In my case  I cannot upgrade update all users of my Excel file in various locations   Since the problem comes back after some users save the Excel file  I am going to have to replace the ActiveX control with something else

User · Answer

With Windows 8 1 I couldn t find any  exd files using windows search  On the other hand  a cmd command dir   exd  S found the one file on my system

User · Answer

I want to provide an answer that worked as the only thing for me  I realize that I might be the only one ever   I had in one macro that I was calling using the ribbon  It had the following code   colStore   new Collection   I wasn t aware that it throws an error so I was baffled and tried everything in here  The button just stopped working and I couldn t get it to work  When I noticed the error and corrected it to   Set colStore   new Collection   It started working again  Absolutely strange if you ask me but maybe it helps someone out there who was as desperate as me

User · Answer

I did finally find this answer on the official Microsoft KB   http   support microsoft com kb 3025036 EN-US   No new information here than what we have in previous answers  but at least it acknowledges that Microsoft is aware of the issue

User · Answer

It was KB2553154  Microsoft needs to release a fix  As a developer of Excel applications we can t go to all our clients computers and delete files off them  We are getting blamed for something Microsoft caused

User · Answer

I know many answers have already been posted for this  but neither one answer independently worked for my site  So here is what worked for me   Step 1  Uninstall the following updates - KB2920789  KB2920790  KB2920792  KB2920793  KB2984942  KB2596927  Step 2  Hide these updates so they do not get installed on subsequent reboots  Step 3  Delete folder Excel8 0 from C  Users  lt   AppData Local Temp  Step 4  Restart workstatiion  I would also make sure the above mentioned KBs did not inadvertently get applied

User · Answer

From other forums  I have learned that it is due to the MS Update and that a good fix is to simply delete the file MSForms exd from any Temp subfolder in the user s profile  For instance   C  Users  user name  AppData Local Temp Excel8 0 MSForms exd  C  Users  user name  AppData Local Temp VBE MSForms exd  C  Users  user name  AppData Local Temp Word8 0 MSForms exd  Of course the application  Excel  Word     must be closed in order to delete this file

[excel] Microsoft Excel ActiveX Controls Disabled?

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