"Remote Desktop Web Connection ActiveX Control Could Not Be Installed" error after Installing Windows XP SP3

Hello there!

My name is Axel Rivera.  I am a Senior Support Escalation Engineer on the IE Support Team.  Of the past few weeks, many of my customers have come across this issue and so I thought this would be a blog that you might find worth while.

When starting the Remote Desktop Web Connection window after installing Windows XP Service Pack 3, the following error may occur:

Remote Desktop Web Connection ActiveX control could not be installed. A connection cannot be made without a working installed version of the control. Please contact the server administrator.

Note: The Connect button remains grayed out, as well.

This behavior is due to the Microsoft RDP ActiveX Control being disabled installing Windows XP Service Pack 3 or Windows Small Business Server 2003 SP1 on your machine. 

It’s important to note that you may see other symptoms, as well.  These symptoms include:

If the user tries to enable the ActiveX control using the Manage add-ons dialog in Internet Explorer, the Microsoft RDP Active control may not be listed.

This can happen if a machine is built from an OS image with Service Pack 3 for Windows XP slipstreamed.  Windows XP machines that were upgraded to XP SP3 will likely not have this problem and can enable the control using the process documented in KB Article located here.

To get this working again, please use one of the following methods to enable the ActiveX control:

Method 1 
Use the Manage Add-ons dialog in Internet Explorer to enable the Terminal Services ActiveX Control.  See KB951607 for further instruction.

If the ActiveX control is not listed in Manage Add-ons dialog, follow Method 2 below.

Method 2
1. Click Start, Run. Type Regedit.exe and press ENTER

2. Navigate to the following branch:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Settings

3. Double-click Settings to expand the branch.

4. Right-click {7584c670-2274-4efb-b00b-d6aaba6d3850} and choose Delete 
    (Repeat step 4 to delete any other problem keys)

5. Click Yes when asked for confirmation.
    Close all instances of Internet Explorer and re-run Remote Desktop Web Connection.

Registry Solution

Enable the below class ID:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Settings\{7584c670-2274-4efb-b00b-d6aaba6d3850}]

Disable the below class ID:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Settings\{7584c670-2274-4efb-b00b-d6aaba6d3850}]
"Flags"=dword:00000001
"Version"="*"

Example of all the registry keys that you may need to delete to make it all work:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Settings\{7584c670-2274-4efb-b00b-d6aaba6d3850}]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Settings\{4eb89ff4-7f78-4a0f-8b8d-2bf02e94e4b2}]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Settings\{7390f3d8-0439-4c05-91e3-cf5cb290c3d0}]

Note: You may also need to completely remove the below registry keys

More Information:

If the Windows XP/SP3 service pack is download and then extracted, you can find a VBS script that can be used to rectify the problem.

The file name is: tscuinst.vbs

Command: cmd.exe /C "cscript %systemroot%\Installer\TSClientMsiTrans\tscuinst.vbs"

Regards,

The IE Support Team

Comments

• Anonymous
  March 30, 2009
  All other "solutions" offered elsewhere for this problem do not work.  I've used Method 2 on multiple machines now.  It works like a charm, with no side effects.  Bookmark this page now.  You will need to do this again!!

• Anonymous
  May 05, 2009
  I had found pieces of this article before but none of them worked alone.  Last comment was right.  Book mark this article becuase you will need it again.

• Anonymous
  June 11, 2009
  I have the problem on IE8 with Windows 7 RC1. It was okay 3 weeks ago and after some updates for Windows 7, I don't see RDP in the addon anymore. The solution above don't work I cannot find the GUID in the HKCU entries as detailed above... any further help?

• Anonymous
  June 27, 2009
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  September 07, 2009
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  September 08, 2009
  Brilliant solution!  Deleting the single registry key worked great on my XPSP3, IE8 - I could not get the add on to show up or load before, and it ran without a hitch after the deletion.

• Anonymous
  September 24, 2009
  It'snt necesary to delete the entire branch.Only change de "Flag" value to "0" in the same branch (HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExtSettings)Regards

• Anonymous
  September 29, 2009
  Sir, sorry to tell you that it still doesn't work  after I have done the things you suggested.alai7150@163.com

• Anonymous
  September 29, 2009
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  September 30, 2009
  So, as this began with SP3 and was noted as a problem in February 09, what patch fixed this problem?

• Anonymous
  October 02, 2009
  We've experience some clients having this problem after a Microsoft Update. To fix, we go to Control Panels->Internet Options. Then click on Custom Level, scroll down, then ENABLE "Allow Previously unused ActiveX controls to run without permision"

• Anonymous
  October 05, 2009
  Hi,There's no such add-on available in Win7 IE8 ... Does the registry fix work?  ..or is there another solution?thanks!

• Anonymous
  November 05, 2009
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 10, 2009
  another bit of microsoft garbage, Go Steve jobs and Apple,My frikkin iphone connects to any terminal perfectly even gets console, something that NO windows desktop can do

• Anonymous
  November 10, 2009
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  December 14, 2009
  Also tried everything listed with IE 8 and no luck. In method 2 that registry key is not listed for me. Not sure how it's been since June and there is still no solution to this problem....

• Anonymous
  December 17, 2009
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  December 18, 2009
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  December 23, 2009
  I didn't have the key listed at the above locations but did search the registry and found it several other places. Deleted the entry under where found it under the only IE reg entry and that worked. Sorry didn't pay attention to the exact reg path.  

• Anonymous
  December 24, 2009
  Tried deleting the registry key and re-registering mstscax.dll - no luck. Tried enabling all previously downloaded activex controls - no luck.  Tried resetting IE to default configuration - no luck.Its been nearly a year and there are still folks with issues.  Can someone at MS actually pick up this dropped ball?

• Anonymous
  January 20, 2010
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 23, 2010
  I found using FireFox instead of IE fixes the problem. Come on MS

• Anonymous
  March 02, 2010
  The solution posted by N. Bird worked for me.

• Anonymous
  March 15, 2010
  Ok, NBird has it.  But you shouldn't need to reinstall the RDP if you are on SP3, just regsrvr32 mstscax.dll  and it works!

• Anonymous
  March 18, 2010
  Thanks so much NBird. I was also about to give up but installing KB956744 did the trick!!!

• Anonymous
  April 05, 2010
  Just wanted to confirm that the above post from NBird solved my problem.  I had undertaken all his steps except for the downloading of KB956744 .  That fixed the Remote Desktop ActiveX control errorsThanks!

• Anonymous
  August 16, 2010
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  May 15, 2011
  Thanks for the concise info ; simple solution of enabling Active-X control in IE for XP. Worked for me!

• Anonymous
  May 15, 2011
  Thanks for the concise info ; simple solution of enabling Active-X control in IE for XP. Worked for me!

• Anonymous
  December 10, 2011
  This worked!!!  Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

• Anonymous
  March 18, 2012
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  September 11, 2013
  The issue can also be the "ActiveX Filtering" option, this happens a lot.You can also disable this by using group policy >support.microsoft.com/.../2522815

• Anonymous
  October 29, 2013
  Thanks Abhinav Sharma. I had the same issue in XP SP3 and tried all of the above, without any success.I downloaded and installed the latest RDP client version and finally solved the problem :-)

• Anonymous
  December 27, 2013
  NBird !! YOU a GENIUS !!! .. solved the problem!! after trying all other fixes .. this did it!!!!!