Why does my ActiveX control fail to update in Internet Explorer?

  • Article

Hello everyone!

My name is Vinod and I am a Support Engineer on the IE Support Team. I wanted to share with you a very interesting issue I worked on recently.

A user installs an ActiveX control from a web site. The web site is updated with a newer version of the control. When the user navigates to the updated web site, he is prompted to install the updated control as expected.

The user then clicks the "Install" button - installation yields no errors.  The ActiveX control appears to load and work fine. But on every subsequent visit to the web site, user is prompted to install the ActiveX control again.

This can happens if the VerCache registry key fails to be updated during the upgrade of the control:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Settings\{D7D5ACA4-4C57-4C75-8D68-BC185E924B4C}] "VerCache"

But how can such a thing happen?

This can happen if the old and new versions of the control have the same “Created” date time stamp, “Modified” date time stamp and the file size, for example:

clip_image001

clip_image002

Here in the above mentioned screenshots they both are having same file date time stamps and that Causes the VerCache registry key to not get updated.

To resolve this , ensure that at least one of these parameters - “Created” date time stamp, “Modified” date time stamp or the file size, on the updated control is different from the old version of the control and you should be GTG!

Regards,

The IE Support Team

Comments

  • Anonymous
    May 28, 2009
    This has explained a current problem I've been having for about three weeks. I don't know what to install or do so I can receive Adobe pdf attached files. I was running IE 5.5, somehow I was updated to IE6.0. IE7 and IE8 are out there, I don't know what to install. I have a HP desktop with pentium 3 with OS Windows Me. I need help selecting what is best for my current computer. Can I get some help with this issue? Thank you. JB
  • Anonymous
    June 04, 2009
    Hi..I have created simple windows control library which is activex containing login screen(just 2 textboxes and 1 submit button and no database activity and no logic inside).I hosted this control in internet explorer and works fine for all systems..But when i access the same from a new machine from IE the control is not loading and displaying a blank screen.I have read all the microsoft support and modified every thing under security in IE and also added the site to trusted zone..I am getting frustrated about this issue and what else can i do to load the control in IE? it is working if i access from IE from a different machine..Thanks,Janardhan
  • Anonymous
    June 06, 2009
    wanting to update my window update; they want me to install active x control  who should i go to get it done dak7x1net@zero.net to respond.? thankx
  • Anonymous
    July 12, 2010
    I was having horrible VerCache issues with my control.  Not sure why, it could be because my cab had an installer in it, but it didn't seem to be paying attention to the file date/time/size values at all.  In the end I added up writing a custom installer action that on each run would delete "HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExtSettings{GUID}" at the start of each install.  This fixed the issue for me.