Microsoft Windows Common Control Library (MSCOMCTL.OCX) Security Update Requires Fixing

ActiveX ControlOn August 14, 2012, Microsoft released a security update for Microsoft Office that includes an update to the Windows Common Control MSCOMCTL.OCX.

Unfortunately, this update causes problems with existing Microsoft Access, Visual Basic 6, and other applications that use the common control such as the Treeview and ListBox controls. For us, this impacts our Total Access Analyzer program which uses the Treeview control in its database explorer feature. It triggers this error:

Error 459 – Object or class does not support the set of events,
Procedure clsFrmExplorer_TAA.InitForm

Microsoft provides a workaround for this problem in a Knowledgebase article, but it doesn't always work. We've come up with a solution that addresses this problem reliably.

Read our article Fixing the Microsoft Windows Common Control Library (MSCOMCTL.OCX) Security Update for more details.

13 thoughts on “Microsoft Windows Common Control Library (MSCOMCTL.OCX) Security Update Requires Fixing

  1. I developed a client management software for a law firm using access connected to SQL Server. I used treeview control to list the cases each attorney is responsible for, list the directory for each one of the clients, and to manage their incoming mail. It was working fine until the latest Windows update. The new MSCOMCTL.OCX created all kinds of headaches. I was able to solve it temporarily by installing the legacy file, but i would get the error again once there was a new update. I came across your solution and it actually worked. I can finally move on to other issues! Thanks!

  2. The paper is updated to include the explicit registry entry that’s not being deleted when the new control is installed. By deleting this entry, the problem goes away:

    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{831FDD16-0C5C-11D2-A9FC-0000F8754DA1}\2.0

  3. Thanks a lot for your "recipe". I am maintaining an Access XP application and have had it running under Windows 7. The treeview I use in a System Area was working fine. Last week I got an error in using the treeview and nothing had changed in my code. I was so happy to find your explanation and direction for fixing Microsoft’s problem.

  4. I followed all of the procedures in the article (twice) and the offending registry entry is gone…and i’m STILL getting the TAA.InitializeTreeview error. not sure what to do now, but i’ll hunt around on the internets and see if i can find a resolution.

  5. Hi

    thanks for putting things together but in my case the problem isn’t solved. I still get the MouseOver errors as before. Also following the Microsoft updated kb article to delete the 2.0 key didn’t help.

    I have to search again in the web. Are there any changes needed on the Access 2010 site?

  6. I was facing this problem for a couple of weeks in my access 2013 application and searching help on net and today i found the solution described here. it works and very useful. thanks a lot
    shakil from pakistan

  7. In MS Access 2010, an error appears with a treeview element: "The expression Expand you entered as the event property setting produced the following error: There was an error loading an ActiveX control on one of your forms or reports." The Treeview element works fine in the original database, which is in MS Access 2003.

    After talking to IT, I was directed to this article and it seems to be MSCOMCTL.OCX that is causing the issue. Users use both 2010 and 2003 versions. Will the solution work to permanently prevent the error, especially if the file is shared with users across a network? Thanks!

  8. Sher: The ActiveX Control is installed on each user’s machine, so after you’ve ensured it works on your machine, you’ll also need to make sure your users don’t have this problem. Note that problems with the control impact much more than Access applications as any application that uses the common control (VB6, .NET, etc.) would be impacted by this problem.

  9. I have struggled with this issue for a day, It is resolved a due to a manual update of the MSCOMCTL.OXC file. I’m running a parts DB with Access 2007 runtime. The DB developer used these deprecated controls in the early version. I found using the register and unregistered method not necessary, because I didn’t have the new MSCOMCTL.OXC. I found the new file here ** http://www.lateralworks.com/fastproject/2012/10/resolve-compatibility-problems-with-microsoft-libraries.html ** There are also instructions to resolve the issue.

  10. These steps still work! I develop an MS Access app for a client via Remote Desktop to their server running Windows Server 2012 (64-bit) using MS Access 2010. In the app, the reference to Microsoft Windows Common Controls 6.0 (SP6) was correctly set but MS Access wouldn’t recognize MSComdtlLib.Treeview as a valid type; I’d get a compile error that the type wasn’t defined. RegEdit showed registry entries for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{831FDD16-0C5C-11D2-A9FC-0000F8754DA1}\2.0, \2.1 and \2.2. I applied the steps described here and had the client reboot the server and I get no more compile errors and the treeview control works. RegEdit shows the registry entry for \2.0 is gone now. There’s still a registry entry for \2.1 but it doesn’t seem to be causing a problem (so far.) Thanks for being such a valuable resource to the MS Access development community!

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