KB2553154 Breaks COM and Active X controls in Excel

Anonymous
2014-12-10T14:28:48+00:00

Hi

The last windows update batch contained update KB2553154 for office 32 bit.

This update breaks all COM and Active x controls in Excel (i.e. buttons, combo boxes etc.). Like many businesses we use Excel with these controls extensively and this update is crippling Excel for our users.

We have installed and uninstalled it on a number of machines both Windows 7 and Windows 8 and have proved this update is causing the issue.

PLEASE Microsoft withdraw or fix this update we can hardly go around all our pc's worldwide and manually uninstalling it.

Regards

A customer wondering if you test your updates before releasing them

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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HansV 462.7K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2014-12-10T14:49:07+00:00

Quit Excel.

Start Windows Explorer.

Select the system drive (usually C:).

Use the Search box to search for *.exd

Delete all found files.

(Thanks to Excel MVP RoryA for this tip)

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Anonymous
2016-10-18T19:07:46+00:00

I know that this is way beyond when you posted this but I was able to fix this problem by updating Microsoft Office to the latest service pack. Then installing excel2010-kb2956142-fullfile-x86-glb.exe for Office 2010 andexcel2013-kb2956145-fullfile-x86-glb.exe for Office 2013. Hope this might help out someone else out there trying to figure out this problem.  Also this page has some information on fixes as well. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3017349

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-12-16T21:42:05+00:00

    You can try fixing the issue by deleting the MSForms.exd files just once in these hidden temp folders while Excel is closed:

    C:\Users[user.name]\AppData\Local\Temp\Excel8.0\MSForms.exd

    C:\Users[user.name]\AppData\Local\Temp\VBE\MSForms.exd

    If you need to distribute your Excel file, there is a way to rename the MSForms.exd files in VBA even when Excel is running, which can also fix the issue. You can find the VBA snippet in the link below. Add the snippet to the spreadsheets you're distributing. Then they should be immune to the Microsoft update.

    http://www.excelclout.com/microsoft-update-breaks-excel-activex-controls-fix/

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-12-20T03:45:07+00:00

    OK, I've just had someone tell me that they had to reboot after clearing the .exd files before the fix would work. So to confirm the steps:

    Close all Office apps.

    Windows key + R

    In the run box type %temp% and press Enter.

    Locate the Excel8.0 and VBE folders and delete any .exd files there

    Reboot.

    Then retry Excel.

    If that still doesn't work, can you let me know which versions of Office and Windows and whether each is 32 bit or 64 bit.

    Thanks.

    I had this same problem on a 32-bit system, but not on my 64-bit desktop.  I followed these steps without success, but then repeated them AND deleted the KB2553154 update and rebooted and it worked.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-12-22T15:36:52+00:00

    I've tried this and my active X controls still don't work. I have Windows 7 64 bit with Office '13 32 bit.

    Thanks

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