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
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! You just made my day! Spent hours trying to fix this problem and NOTHING else posted on this issue helped! You are awarded “Hero Status”!
Thank you very much for this solution. I went crazy for a couple of hours trying to figure out why the PowerPoint program I carefully developed using active x controls suddenly stopped working. I tried everything I could via help to find out why these active x controls no longer worked. Finally after some searching I found your site, followed your directions and the problem is fixed. Thank you MicroSoft for complicating my life. And thank you for solving the problem. Keep smiling. dm
Thank you for the fix! And nice, concise description. Saved me a ton of time.
This is not a fix at all when it comes to the server side.
There is no such .EXD files in the location mentioned.
Windows Server 2012 R2
Files are on a separate HDD which translates to a shared drive for the users
This fix applies to a specific update which came out quite some time ago. It’s a very generic error message so something else could be going on. I’ve not done any testing on the server side. Let me know if you do find a fix and I can post an update.
I wish I had similar news, but the problem still exists for me. I also get a Repair option before the “Some controls” message though. I’m trying to embed a .swf file into PPT, which I’ve been able to do successfully for 3+ years and all of a sudden I get these stupid error messages any time I try to open a newly saved PPT with Flash embedded in it. Any help would be GREATLY appreciate! 🙂
This fix applies to a specific update which came out quite some time ago. It’s a very generic error message so something else could be going on. Did you recently update flash player or apply Windows updates?
I tried to do as you wrote above, but mine wasn’t a lucky one. I still have the same error message popping up when I tried to open the MS PPT file. In my PPT file, I embeded Youtube address on the slide using the Shockwave Flash Object, but I can’t find it anymore under the more controls in developer tab.
I just updated MS 2016 and I eliminated some Adobe programs (I don’t remember which Adobe programs I deleted) and then installed 1) Adobe Flash Player 22PPAPI (ver. 22.0.0.209) and 2) Adobe Shockwave 12.2 (ver. 12.2.4.194).
My computer has Window 7 Professional
32-bit operational system
Your kind help is greatly appreciated!
I had this problem and did not find any EXD files in the TEMP directory. However, deleting all files in the TEMP directory (%TEMP%) fixed the problem. YMMV
Hi
Thanks I have a windows 7 computer an suggestions
in windows 7 there is no file
Anonymous