When using your computer and you try to automate Microsoft Office applications with Visual Basic macros, you may receive the following error message:

“Run-time error ‘429′: ActiveX component can’t create object”

This happens when the Windows ‘COM’ cannot create the requested Automation object, and the Automation object is therefore unavailable to Visual Basic. However this error does not appear on all computers.

The Microsoft Office applications are automated using an automated server system, this is generally based on the Windows COM architecture. The COM, or Component Object Model architecture, is a binary-interface standard for software componentry.

What Causes The Runtime Error 429?

There are many reasons why the runtime 429 error occurs in Visual Basic. Some of the reasons why it occurs are below. It occurs if anyone of the statements are true:

• There is a mistake in the application.
• There is a mistake in the system configuration.
• There is a missing component.
• There is a damaged component.

How To Fix The Runtime Error 429

Step 1 – Make Sure Your Application Is Able To Work With Automation

The first step is to make sure that your application can work with automation, if it turns out that it’s not the case there is no point of it at all because you would be able to get it to work. In order to check whether your application is compatible with automation, you can simply troubleshoot it. To do this follow these steps:

• Click Start, select Run.
• Type the name of the application in e.g. to troubleshoot Microsoft Word type in Word.
• Press OK.

Step 2 – Re-register The Application

Re-registering the application will allow the automation server to read the application. You should do the follow steps for the program that’s causing an error. To re-register your application follow these steps:

• Click Start, select Run.
• Type C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Word.ex/regsever.
• This is only an example showing you what you would do to re-register Microsoft Word.

Step 3 – Rename Normal.dot And Word.xlb

This step is needed because sometimes the Runtime Error 429 occur due to the automation failing, this is down to the Normal.dot template or Word.xlb resource file being corrupted to resolve this issue follow these steps:

• Search for all Normal.dot and Word.xlb file that are on your system and then rename them.
• Re run your automation test to see if it runs. If this happens it means the deleted files will be recreated along with their application.
• However it this is not the case then you need to rename the files back to the original names and re-use them.

Step 4 – Clean Out The Registry

- Download this registry cleaner

The ‘registry’ is an extremely important part of Windows, which is constantly being used by your computer system to help it run as smoothly as possible. Every time you use your system, 100’s of registry settings need to be read to help it recall many different settings & files that your system needs to run. Unfortunately, many of these settings become corrupt or damaged, leading to Runtime errors to show. You can ensure this is not such a big problem by using a ‘registry cleaner’ to scan through your system and repair any of these damaged settings. This is highly recommended and you can see our top recommended tool below: