[AccessD] Treeview/Listview OCX Disabled by MS

William Hindman wdhindman at dejpolsystems.com
Fri Mar 12 19:43:43 CST 2010


...just came too damn close to having a heart attack

...I use the mscomctl.ocx (treeview/listview controls) extensively 
throughout my apps
especially for my switchboard/menuing system

...I'd not worked on an app this week because we have newborn kittens whose 
mother can't feed them
(trust me, it's a round the clock operation)

...so this morning a client needed something and I reluctantly (and 
blearily) fired up the app on my laptop

...and the switchboard pops up saying a control couldn't be found ...into 
design mode and I get an error msg
" there was a problem accessing a property or method of the OLE object."

...checked my references, nothing missing, reloaded them, still an error

...the problem control on the form was the mscomctl.ocx so I looked for it 
in system32, found it, reregistered it, still no fix

...went into my archives and opened the previous version of the app, same 
error ...uh oh

...went to another client's app using the treeview switchboard ...same error 
...in fact EVERY app using the treeview or listview was broke

...panic time

...pulled out my dvd, found the cab, extracted the ocx and replaced it in 
system32 ...same error

...started binging for "mscomctl.ocx" ...turns out MS had used a security 
update to put the old version (6.01.9782 on the "killbits" fixlist that sets 
a registry entry to prevent it from running in IE ...but my problem was in 
Access and the bulletin didn't say anything about it not running there 
...but knowing MS, I started looking for the newer version ...but of course 
the only place I found it was in a VB6 Runtime Extensions update exe that 
wouldn't install without a copy of VB6 on my system ...more searching and 
many false leads later, I found the latest version (6.01.9816) as a cab file 
download at activex.microsoft.com/controls/vb6/mscomctl.cab

...downloaded, extracted, rebooted, and bingo! ...my apps are all working 
again :)

...@#$%^&* MS! ...turned off the auto updates ...going back to vetting each 
one ...what a pita :(

William



 





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