RESOLUTION
There are several workarounds for this problem. However, they may not work
in all cases.
Re-order the Entries in the VBADDIN.INI
This is a trial-and-error process where you open up the VBADDIN.INI in a
text editor such as notepad.exe and change the order of the lines. This
causes Visual Basic to load and shut down the add-ins in a different order
and may bypass the problem. However, if you add or remove an add-in at any
later time, the problem could resurface. The VBADDIN.INI file is located in
your Windows directory.
For instance, you may have a VBADDIN.INI that looks something like this:
[Add-Ins32]
TabOrder.Connect=0
DataFormDesigner.DFDClass=0
VBSDIAddIn.Connect=0
DataToolsAddIn.Connect=0
AppWizard.Wizard=0
WizMan.Connect=0
ClassBuilder.Wizard=1
AddInToolbar.Connect=1
ControlWiz.Wizard=1
DataFormWizard.Wizard=0
ActiveXDocumentWizard.Wizard=0
PropertyPageWizard.Wizard=1
APIDeclarationLoader.Connect=0
VisualCompMgr.Connect=0
RVBAddInMenus.Connector=1
RVBAddIn.Connector=0
Through trial and error, you may find that the problem goes away when the
VBADDIN.INI is arranged as follows:
[Add-Ins32]
RVBAddInMenus.Connector=1
AddInToolbar.Connect=1
TabOrder.Connect=0
DataFormDesigner.DFDClass=0
VBSDIAddIn.Connect=0
DataToolsAddIn.Connect=0
AppWizard.Wizard=0
WizMan.Connect=0
ClassBuilder.Wizard=1
ControlWiz.Wizard=1
DataFormWizard.Wizard=0
ActiveXDocumentWizard.Wizard=0
PropertyPageWizard.Wizard=1
APIDeclarationLoader.Connect=0
VisualCompMgr.Connect=0
RVBAddIn.Connector=0
Unfortunately, this workaround doesn't always work. When you are testing
out your changes to the VBADDIN.INI, make sure you use the following
procedure. In order for your changes to take effect, you must start Visual
Basic after saving your changes to the VBADDIN.INI:
- Shut-down Visual Basic 5.0.
- Save changes to the VBADDIN.INI.
- Start Visual Basic 5.0.
- Shut-down Visual Basic 5.0.
Move Add-In Command Bars to the Main Toolbar
Drag all Add-In toolbar buttons to the Standard toolbar using the toolbar
customize feature of the Visual Basic development environment. This gets
rid of some command bars and may by-pass the problem:
- Launch Visual Basic 5.0.
- From the Add-Ins menu, select the Add-In Manager and ensure that the Add-In Toolbar is selected.
- From the View menu, select Toolbars > Customize.
- Drag each of the Add-In toolbar buttons to the Standard toolbar.
- Deselect the Add-In toolbar from the Customize dialog box.
- Close the Customize dialog box.
- From the Add-Ins menu, select the Add-In Manager and ensure that the Add-In Toolbar is deselected.
- Close Visual Basic 5.0.
Disable Add-Ins Before Exiting Visual Basic 5.0
It may be possible to work around the problem by shutting down all the
active add-ins manually prior to exiting Visual Basic 5.0. To shut down an
add-in, use the following procedure:
- Select the "Add-Ins\Add-In Manager..." menu to bring up the Add-In Manager.
- De-select the add-ins that you wish to unload.
- Press OK to unload the add-ins.
STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed
at the beginning of this article. This bug has been fixed in Visual Studio
97 Service Pack 2.
For more information on the Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2, please see the
following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
170365INFO: Visual Studio 97 Service Packs - What, Where, and Why
For a list of the Visual Basic 5.0 bugs that were fixed in the Visual
Studio 97 Service Pack 2, please see the following article in the Microsoft
Knowledge Base:
171554 INFO: Visual Basic 5.0 Fixes in Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2