Also know as Object Library Invalid Or Contains References To Object Definitions

I just finished an epic battle with PowerPoint cause by a recent round of Windows Update. My colleague ran into the same problem so it’s time to share the cause and very easy fix to this problem. If you see “Some controls on this presentation can’t be activated. They might not be registered on this computer” when you startup specific PowerPoint files and you’ve recently updated your computer then this is likely your problem.

To verify if you’re having the same problem open a new PowerPoint file and go to the “DEVELOPER” tab. If you don’t have it you can activate it by going to

File > Options > Customize Ribbon > Right hand panel > Check the box next to Developer

Then try to place one of the “Controls” onto your blank new PowerPoint file.

You should get an error indicating the library is corrupted and missing. Congratulations you’ve identified the problem! Now for the fix:

Open Windows Explorer and type %AppData% into the address bar. Which will take you to the Roaming Directory. You need to navigate back one folder to just the AppData Directory. (On Windows XP running office 2010 I found the files in “Local Settings” instead of “AppData”)

From there just search for “*.EXD” and remove any files that you find. These files are temporary and will conflict with the new files that were installed by Microsoft. Instead of uninstalling updates and Office multiple times, take the easy way out and delete these files. Restart PowerPoint and you’ve got your fix!

Some other things I searched for when trying to fix this problem

method ‘object’ of object ‘oleformat’ failed ActiveX Label
missing activex control windows 8.1
activex controls not registered powerpoint
reinstall activex control windows 8.1
Object Library Invalid Or Contains References To Object Definitions