Microsoft 12/9/2014 Update Breaks ActiveX Controls Fix on Windows/Mac!

Published by Jacob Martin on April 25, 2015

Some of your interactive macro enabled Excel files may start top crash without any reason after installing of the Microsoft updates which was released on 12/9/2014, the Excel tool can fix this problem. If you are running Excel 2013 and the Excel tool fails to fix this issue then go with the Office 2013 fix as shown below:

Issue and Fix

12/9/14 Microsoft released some of the Windows and Office updates. In one of the update it broke the ActiveX controls in Excel-the buttons, combo boxes, text boxes, and other controls that make the spreadsheets interactive. The ‘438’ run-time errors starts to copy up the spreadsheets that use to work before.

When you insert one of these ActiveX controls,  you may come across “Cannot insert object” error.

If you get these types of error messages then it is likely that you may have been affected with the Microsoft updates. So you can try to delete the MSForms.exd files which are present in the temporary folders when Excel is closed, this will take away this issue.

C:Users[user.name]AppDataLocalTempExcel8.0MSForms.exd

C:Users[user.name]AppDataLocalTempVBEMSForms.exd

MSForms.exd files are hidden folders and to locate them can be tricky for some of the users. So then you need to automatically rename the MSForms.exd files in the hidden folders, which can fix the issue. Automatically deletion of the MSForms.exd files is not possible because it requires closing of Excel. However automatic renaming leads to same result. Thus you need to download the Excel File Repair Tool and fix the ActiveX Controls button, and restart Excel. This will definitely solve this issue and your spreadsheets would start to work again.

Office 2013 Fix

If you are running the Excel 2013 and removing the MSForms.exd files then if this issue is not resolved then try removing the offending Office update KB2726958.

Fir this Go to the Control Panel > Programs > Under Programs and Features: View installed updates > Select the Update KB2726958 for Office 2013 > Uninstall

If you are not able to locate the offending update KB2726958, then you can also try to revert the current version of Office 2013 to the version of the right before the update by following the instruction from Microsoft. Here is a script that launches the repair program that reverts Office 2013 to version 15.0.4667.1002.

1. You just need the Excel File Repair Tool and copy and paste the code below into the text script. You can create the same script by copying and pasting the code below into a text file, and then save the text file with a .bat extension.

@echo off

 IF EXIST "%programfiles%Microsoft Office 15ClientX86officec2rclient.exe" (
 "%programfiles%Microsoft Office 15ClientX86officec2rclient.exe" /update user updatetoversion=15.0.4667.1002
 )

 IF EXIST "%programfiles%Microsoft Office 15ClientX86integratedoffice.exe" (
 "%programfiles%Microsoft Office 15ClientX86integratedoffice.exe" REPAIRUI RERUNMODE version=15.0.4667.1002
 )

 IF EXIST "%programfiles%Microsoft Office 15ClientX64officec2rclient.exe" (
 "%programfiles%Microsoft Office 15ClientX64officec2rclient.exe" /update user updatetoversion=15.0.4667.1002
 )

 IF EXIST "%programfiles%Microsoft Office 15ClientX64integratedoffice.exe" (
 "%programfiles%Microsoft Office 15ClientX64integratedoffice.exe" REPAIRUI RERUNMODE version=15.0.4667.1002
 )

2. Then Repair the Excel file using the software. 3. At this time you need to disable Office automatic updates until Microsoft addresses this problem. For this you need to Start Excel > File > Account > Under Production Information: Update Options and then Disable Updates.

4. Then put a reminder to re-enable the  Office 2013 automatic updates.

Imperfect Solution for Developers: VBA Code

If you are a developer and could not simply reach into all the client’s computers then you can insert the following VBA code into the spreadsheet that you work on or distributing. VBA code is essentially the code behind the tool that is created for renaming the MSForms.exd files. You just need to add the VBA code to your spreadsheets, and your spreadsheets will be “immune” to the Microsoft Updates.

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]AppDataLocalTempExcel8.0MSForms.exd file  
    RenameFile Environ("TEMP") & "Excel8.0" & msFormsFileName, Environ("TEMP") & "Excel8.0" & tempFileName  
    'Try to rename the C:Users[user.name]AppDataLocalTempVBEMSForms.exd file  
    RenameFile Environ("TEMP") & "VBE" & msFormsFileName, Environ("TEMP") & "VBE" & 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)  "")  
End Function  

Private Sub DeleteFile(path As String) 
    If CheckFileExist(path) Then 
        SetAttr path, vbNormal  
        Kill path  
    End If  
End Sub

You just need to copy and paste the following VBA code into any module in the spreadsheet.

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.

1. The affected users may experience ActiveX control errors while running the VBA code at the first time while opening the spreadsheet. Just after executing the VBA code you need to restart the Excel and fix this issue. Normally when the users encounter the broken spreadsheet, the knee-jerk reaction closes the Excel and tries to open the spreadsheet again.
2. MSForms.exd files get renamed every time when the spreadsheet opens even when there is no problem with the MSForms.exd files. But the spreadsheet works fine regardless whether the machine runs the spreadsheet has applied the Microsoft update or not.

These points can help the developers to fix all the updates issues related to MS excel but still they fail to then Excel File Repair Tool is the best for resolve such issues. It solves all the updates issues, reserves the original formatting of all the cells during Excel file repair process, and can even repair single as well as multiple Excel files.

Steps to Fix Microsoft 12/9/2014 Update Breaks ActiveX Controls:

Step 1: Download the recovery software and after that hit on “OK” button to start the process.

Step 2: To recover the corrupt file, hit on “Select file” button. BY using the “Look in” you can search from particular logical drive.

Step 3: Select the corrupt file from the search list with the help of check box. After that hit on “Select all” and hit on “Start” button to begin the scanning process.

Step 4: As soon as the scanning process completes, you can view your corrupt files.

Step 5: At last, hit on the “Start repair” button to begin the repairing process. Select the perfect location to save your repaired excel file and after that hit on “OK” button.

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