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Hi All,
I am a newbie -- and have just installed a New Windows XP Home Edition (Legal and Registered) on my computer and was trying to unzip a program and recieved this message....

Component'COMDLG32.OCX or one of its dependecies not correctly registered a file is missing or invalid.

Ok I am registered with Windows-- and this is a brand new program , so how can files be missing or invalid?????
As I said I am a newbie -- so please if someone knows the answer-- keep it simple for me..
I need Computing for dummies??? LOL
Thank you so much for your time
ButterflyIII2006

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by zandiago

Dani AI

Generated

Helpful background and a short, safe troubleshooting path for (and anyone else seeing the same error).

COMDLG32.OCX is an old Visual Basic "common dialog" ActiveX control. The error means that the program expects that OCX to be present and registered with Windows; it does not mean Windows activation is wrong. Many older or portable programs ship that OCX (or require the VB runtime) and simply extracting files from a ZIP will leave the OCX unregistered.

Quick steps to try (run the commands while logged in as an Administrator):

  1. Look for the file:
  • 32-bit Windows: C:\Windows\System32\comdlg32.ocx
  • 64-bit Windows: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\comdlg32.ocx

  1. If the file is missing, reinstall the program using its setup.exe or install the vendor-supplied runtime — avoid downloading OCX files from random sites.

  2. If the file exists but is not registered, register it with regsvr32. Example commands:

copy "comdlg32.ocx" "C:\Windows\System32"
regsvr32 "C:\Windows\System32\comdlg32.ocx"

For 64-bit hosts, place the OCX into SysWOW64 and run that regsvr32:

copy "comdlg32.ocx" "C:\Windows\SysWOW64"
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\regsvr32 "C:\Windows\SysWOW64\comdlg32.ocx"

See the Microsoft regsvr32 documentation for details: regsvr32 documentation

If registration fails, common causes are wrong bitness (32-bit OCX on a 64-bit folder), missing VB runtime libraries (install the VB6 runtime redistributable or run the program's installer), or a mismatched/old OCX version. As a last resort, System File Checker or a restore to a point before the change can help, but the recommended approach is to run the original installer or get the runtime from the software vendor. Thanks to , , and for the welcomes — the steps above fill the gap left by the initial replies.

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Welcome to Daniweb! Post your question here.

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Welcome Butterfly.

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Welcome!

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