Error accessing COM components

Question

I built an add-in for Microsoft Office Word. There isn't an issue using the add-in when Word is ran as Administrator, but when it's not ran as an Administrator, there are two common exceptions accessing Ribbon elements.

The first Exception:

Unable to cast COM object of type 'System.__ComObject' to interface type 'Microsoft.Office.Core.IRibbonUI'. This operation failed because the QueryInterface call on the COM component for the interface with IID '{000C03A7-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}' failed due to the following error:  could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80030002 (STG_E_FILENOTFOUND)).
   at Microsoft.Office.Core.IRibbonUI.InvalidateControl(String ControlID)

This error occurs when the Control is invalidated by the following code:

ribbon.InvalidateControl("control-id");

And the second Exception:

Unable to cast COM object of type 'Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.ApplicationClass' to interface type 'Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word._Application'. This operation failed because the QueryInterface call on the COM component for the interface with IID '{00020970-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}' failed due to the following error:  could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80030002 (STG_E_FILENOTFOUND)).
   at Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.ApplicationClass.get_Selection()

This error occurs on the last line of the following code:

object wdStory = Word.WdUnits.wdStory;
object wdMove = Word.WdMovementType.wdMove;
WrdApp.Selection.EndKey(ref wdStory, ref wdMove)

How can I fix this problem?

Does it work on other computers? I broke the registry the other day (on a coworkers computer no less) and was experiencing issues similar to this will all programs that used COM components. If it works on another computer, I'll explain what I did to fix it. — Wug, Oct 18 '12 at 14:59
Yes, works in development computer. Only in the test machine is not working. Maybe because I install (and unistall) many versions of Office (2007, 2007-64, 2010, 2010-64) — Victor, Oct 18 '12 at 15:01
Oh dear. Well, what operating system is the test machine running? — Wug, Oct 18 '12 at 15:03
But why when I'm running as administrator everything works fine? — Victor, Oct 18 '12 at 15:06
I don't know, but I had the same issue. Running programs as an administrator worked, but most would encounter errors and crash otherwise. I'll post an answer with what I did. — Wug, Oct 18 '12 at 15:09
I removed my answer because it didn't work for you, and we don't need people going and blowing up their registries by trying risky solutions like this. — Wug, Oct 18 '12 at 18:01

score 59 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 15 '19 at 13:12

59

Problem solved!

I have previously installed Office 2010, so there are some inconsistences in Windows Registry. To fix them, open the regedit and find for the CLSID from the error.

You will find something like that for the second error:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\{00020970-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}

With the subkeys:

ProxyStubClsid
ProxyStubClsid32
TypeLib

Take a look at the (Default) and Version values inside of TypeLib.

Now find the node below, using the (Default) value as <TypeLib ID>.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\<TypeLib ID>\<version>

As child of this elements you will find more than one element, one of then is the Version of the first registry. If you inspect the others elements, you will find that they point to nothing. Remove the others!!! It's solved!

edited Feb 15 '19 at 13:12

dns_nx

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answered Oct 18 '12 at 20:02

Victor

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@Wug, problem found! Thanks for help me. – Victor Oct 18 '12 at 20:03
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Had the same problem when rolling back from Office 2013 to Office 2010. This solution worked perfectly. – Armin Sadeghi Jul 04 '14 at 05:30
Thanks so much! Spent all day debugging an add-in on one persons computer and this solved it – cesara Oct 30 '14 at 23:32

Nikita R. · Answer 2 · 2016-07-27T21:23:07.070

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I started getting the same exception after upgrading to the latest Office version. I tried a number of suggested fixes including cleaning up the registry in a way similar to what @Victor described.

What eventually helped (even though it might have been a combination of factors) was 'repairing' the installation:

Programs and Features → latest Office version → Repair.

edited Jul 27 '16 at 21:23

answered Oct 13 '15 at 17:37

Nikita R.

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This worked for me also with Office 365 and Windows 7. Thank you! – Wudge Apr 04 '17 at 12:48
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Works for me, I have only VS2010 and Office 2016 – Steven Yong Aug 21 '17 at 04:00
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This worked for me using VS2017 and O365. Thanks a bunch! – Thomas Fonn Nov 15 '19 at 20:07

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 19 '18 at 10:05

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The office repair worked for me. In my case I had installed Project which I believe altered the config and was unable to call up a procedure to migrate data from an excel workbook to SQL

answered Jan 19 '18 at 10:05

Joseph Warero

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 17 '15 at 06:46

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Just install Office 2010 / MS word / .NET Programmability Support.

answered Sep 17 '15 at 06:46

Cicekfidan

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score 0 · Answer 5 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

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@Victor You got me headed on the right path. My issue was not multiple values in the registry but rather, a missing value that Office365 never added. Thanks to you I was able to find my own resolution. A thousand thousand thanks.

Details are here for anyone still looking for a resolution.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

Community

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answered Mar 08 '16 at 00:53

Andrew

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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 20 '17 at 05:14

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I got the same problem today with VS2015 and Office 2013. Changing the Platform target to x64 worked for me.

answered Mar 20 '17 at 05:14

Vaibhav Verma

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Error accessing COM components

6 Answers6

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