Problem installing ActiveX viewer in Windows 7

[Former Member]

Hello,

We downloaded the public beta of Windows 7 today and I am getting an error in our web application when it tries to install the Crystal Reports XI ActiveX report viewer (version 11.0.0.1424 of crviewer.dll). IE8 will issue its normal prompt to ask you if you want to install the control, but after that, the little object image in the upper-left corner of the page turns to a red X.

I tried using the sample code which comes with Crystal XI (SimplePreviewReport.asp in the "BeginHere" folder) and that had the same problem. I put some debug code into SmartViewerActiveX.asp and found that I was getting an "ActiveX component can't create object" error on this line:

Set webBroker = CreateObject("CrystalReports11.WebReportBroker.1")

I don't think it's a security issue because I am an administrator on the machine and I didn't have any problems installing other ActiveX controls. I tried running the web site in both the Local Intranet zone as well as the Trusted Sites zone. I'm also thinking that the issue is more with Windows 7 than IE8 because I have IE8 Beta 2 installed on a Windows XP machine and the Crystal ActiveX viewer installs just fine there.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[former_member200290 · Accepted solution]

Hi Jay,

I am unsure of why it would not install. You can try to manually install the files on the client machine, from the server CAB files, however I am unsure if that will work. Other culprits may be DEP, UAC and fire wall. I know that you mentioned you are an administrator on the machine, however logging on as "Administrator" will give you elevated privileges over a user with admin-rights.

Once Windows 7 is finalized and the official build is released we will have a list of products compatible with Windows 7.

Trevor

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Trevor,

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried logging in as Administrator but it still didn't work. I also tried disabling UAC but that didn't help either. I don't see any problems with the firewall.

I did notice one thing however. I used the Process Monitor utility from SysInternals to try and see if I was getting a permission error on a file or registry entry. I didn't see that, but I did notice that Windows 7 was writing to a file called SetupAPI.app.log in the C:\windows\inf folder during the install. I looked at that log file and noticed that every time I tried to install the viewer, it would create a folder called something like CONFLICT.10 under the C:\Windows\Downloaded Program Files folder (the number was different each time). I looked in these folders and the only file in there is MFC42U.DLL. So, perhaps the MFC42U.DLL file in the CAB file has a conflict with Windows 7.

I tried updating my ActiveXViewer.CAB file with the one from the latest Crystal XI R1 merge module, but that wouldn't install either. Should I be using the R2 merge modules instead? What are the differences between the R1 and R2 merge modules? Is R2 just an incremental update or are the differences bigger than that?

Thanks,

Jay

[former_member200290 · Accepted solution]

XI R2 is more then an incremental update in some aspects to XI R1. They are officially versioned 11 and 11.5 and XI R2 is considered a new release. However in most aspects to a Crystal R1 customer XI R2 doesn't offer much more in functionality other than it is more up-to-date and is still receiving updates and patches.

With out looking at Operating Systems or other factors I generally recommend R1 customers move to R2 so they are kept up-to-date. However being an new version that does mean you will need to update your projects to call the R2 runtime, and then you can use the R2 merge modules.

As for how R2 merge modules work with Windows 7 I cannot say. We will have to wait until Windows 7 final build comes out before we will get a list of supported products on this Operating System, and this can take upwards of 3 months after the OS is released. I would hazard a guess (NOTE: GUESS is the important word here) that R1 and R2 will not be certified with Windows 7. This does not mean it will not work, but does mean it will not be tested and if errors are found that are particular to this OS they will not be fixed.

Remember that this is just a guess, based on R2 being 3 years old and nearing end of its patch cycle and Windows 7 being at least 4 months away. However this cannot be concidered an official statement it is just my personal opinion. Enough caveats there?

Trevor

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your help. I guess I will wait for the final version of Windows 7 to come out before I do any more troubleshooting.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Good afternoon,

The final version of Windows 7 has been in the marketplace now for about 6 months. Is there a resolution to this issue? I'm having the exact same problem with Windows 7 (x64) IE8 (32 bit).

[former_member183750 · Accepted solution]

ActiveX in a win or web app? In a win app, make sure yo have SP6:

https://smpdl.sap-ag.de/~sapidp/012002523100015859952009E/crxir2win_sp6.exe

In a web app; not as such since WIN 7 is not a server OS. Also, see the blog [Report Designer Component (RDC) in classic ASP applications on Win 2008 Server and Win 7 - Possible Solutions|http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/18603] [original link is broken] [original link is broken] [original link is broken];.

Ludek

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