Warning MSB3283: Cannot find wrapper assembly for type library "MSComctlLib". When creating my application

Question

I have a Visual Studio solution that has been around for many years. The project is a Visual Studio 2010 project, and I was able to compile and run the project for many years. This application is a critical application, and I rarely have to run a project and make small changes for errors detected.

Today I needed to do a little research. I opened the project in my old Windows XP window, which is the same machine that I have been developing on for many years. I’m sure that nothing has changed on this machine, although there is a slight chance that IT clicked on Windows Update, which I probably don’t suspect.

I opened my project and immediately clicked the "Run" button on the toolbar. The application will no longer compile. He gets into the last project (out of 7) in the solution and gives me the following result:

------ Build started: Project: QSApplication, Configuration: Debug Any CPU ------ c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Microsoft.Common.targets(1558,9): warning MSB3283: Cannot find wrapper assembly for type library "MSComctlLib". ========== Build: 7 succeeded or up-to-date, 1 failed, 0 skipped ========== 

I'm at a dead end. I have not changed any project or build settings, and I doubt that something important has changed on this computer. I can not find anything useful to request this error, so I do not know what is happening.

Has anyone seen this or knew about a fix?

Answer 1

although there is little chance that IT clicked Windows Update

This is not enough. Two security updates were discovered this year that were fixed in mscomctl. Critical too, no IT department will miss them. MS12-027 was released in April; MS12-060 was released in August. In particular, the April update is significant, it changed the commands of the COM server. This means that the interop library (aka wrapper assembly) is no longer valid.

Uninstall and re-add the dependent fix.

Please note that you may have problems with clients who skip these updates. You really need to think about getting rid of addiction. There is nothing in the mscomctl shell in the .NET Framework, all VB6 controls have good replacements.