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 col

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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\<>\AppData\Local\Temp

Step 4: Restart workstatiion (I would also make sure the above mentioned KBs did not inadvertently get applied)

Answer 4

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.

Answer 5

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):

1. 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

Answer 6

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.