In early December, 2014 a number of our customers started reporting an issue with some of our Excel spreadsheets. Basically that the buttons on those worksheets were no longer working. We have now determined that this problems is a direct result of a Microsoft security update (KB2553154), that has inadvertently disabled the capability of the buttons within all Excel workbooks on the affected computers
Share Trade Tracker our share portfolio workbook is an example of one of our workbooks that may be affected by this problem.....see a screen shot of an affected button that no longer works following the automated Microsoft update.
Solution:
Until Microsoft release a further fix to this problem we can advise a workaround to restore the button functionality on our customers computers if you are affected by this issue.
To resolve this issue, we must delete the cached versions of the control type libraries (extender files) on the affected 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
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. In our testing we only needed to delete the first occurrence of the *.exd file and the button functionality was restored. Also note that the *.exd file was recreated as soon as the button was used in the Excel workbook.
Please report and advise any issues with the steps provided in this solution. If it does resolve your problem and restore the button capability please also let us know.
References:
The following references have been used in developing this solution and can be reviewed by XLAutomation customers before deciding to use this solution
Stackoverflow: Activex Controls Disabled
Microsoft: Knowledge Base Support Article
This solution is provided for XLAutomation customers and has been tested in our development and testing environments. Customers that follow the instructions in this solution do so at their own risk and XLAutomation is not responsible for any unintended impacts that might result.