Knowledge Base

FIX: Toolbar Buttons Do Not Appear Correctly at Run-time

Article ID: 180832

Article Last Modified on 6/29/2004

Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Learning Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 Standard Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 32-Bit Enterprise Edition

This article was previously published under Q180832

SYMPTOMS

The toolbar buttons on a Toolbar control do not appear at run-time. With Visual Basic 5.0, a Toolbar control with buttons on it appears as an empty, gray band. With Visual Basic 4.0, the Toolbar buttons appear but the Toolbar is not tall enough to display the captions.

CAUSE

The problem occurs due to a bug in Comctl32.dll version 4.00.950 that ships with Windows 95.

RESOLUTION

Use an ImageList control to add an image to at least one button, and then all the buttons display correctly. To resolve this problem, install any newer version of Comctl32.dll. You can download an updated version of Comctl32.dll from the Microsoft Download Center. See the "References" section for more information.

STATUS

This problem has been corrected in later versions of Comctl32.dll.

MORE INFORMATION

If you do not add any images to your Toolbar buttons, the buttons may not appear at run-time. But, if you add a ToolTip and/or code behind the button's Click Event, these will work properly when the mouse is placed over the button's location. Also, the gray band is taller when a Caption is used.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

Create a Standard EXE on new installation of Windows 95 (without Internet Explorer installed).
Add a reference to the Windows Common Controls.
Add a Toolbar control to Form1.

Add the following code to Form1:

      Private Sub Form_Load()
        Dim btnX As Button
        Set btnX = Toolbar1.Buttons.Add(, , "Test", tbrDefault)
      End Sub

Run the Project. Note that the Toolbar appears as an empty, gray band across the top of the Form. It should have a single button with "Test" as its Caption.

REFERENCES

For additional information about how download a newer version of Comctl32.ocx, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

167121 FILE: COMCTLZP.EXE: Comctl32.ocx Updated to Version 5.00.3828

NOTE: Versions 3.51 and 4.0 of Comctl32.dll in Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0, respectively, do not exhibit the problem in Visual Basic 5.0.

Additional query words: visible tool bar comctl32

Keywords: kbbug kbfix kb32bitonly kbtoolbar kbctrl KB180832