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We have certain .NET 1.1 applications that are using MSXML DOCM based javascript calls (i.e. FreeThreadedDOM, XMLHTTP, XSLT) from MSXML4.dll on our enterprise XP machines with IE7. When we accessed these application on our new Windows 7 machines with IE9, the javascript errored out as "Automation Server Cannot Create Object" on each lines below.

var _xmlhttp = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP.4.0");
var _freeThreadedDOM = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.FreeThreadedDOMDocument.4.0");
var _xsltTest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XSLTemplate.4.0");
var _domTest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.DOMDocument.4.0");

So we found that the IE9 ActiveX settings had only MXSML3 and MSXML6 APIs available as that is what Microsoft recommends (3 because its widespread and highly supported and 6 because its the most bug-free and lightweight MSXML dll).

Now we are facing a dilemma to should we downgrade to 3 or upgrade to 6.

I wanted to know if someone has an idea if it would be safe to perform MSXML upgrade or downgrade and is there any impact in terms of the functionality offered by MSXML3 or 6 such as XPATH resolution, special characters in XML, XSLT Transformation, ASYCN HTTP in javascript etc. Is that very different from MSXML4?

Any inputs would earn upvotes! :-)

WPF-it
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  • Have you checked this : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5157183/activex-automation-server-cant-create-object – koopajah Feb 22 '13 at 10:10

1 Answers1

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I'm using MSXML in different (VBA) solutions and recently faced the same issue. Our IT department started wiping MSXML4 from some machines... Not sure what part of their process is wiping it but that was not the issue.

I decided to upgrade to MSXML6 because.

  • It's and IT controlled environment and their new image has MSXML6
  • I'm not planning to support older configurations in any way
  • I don't have code that relies on older (now unsupported) features
  • MSXML6 is already installed on the existing equipment
  • MSXML6 is more conformant to the final XML specification
  • MSXML6 also has support for native 64-bit environments

Unless you need to refactor a too large part of your code base (because you'd be using old features), I don't see many reasons to downgrade instead of upgrading.

I cannot absolutely say if it's safe to do it but I'd say it's worth trying.

Best regards and Happy migration. Raymond

raybiss
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