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

• Microsoft Visual Basic Learning, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for Windows, version 5.0
• Microsoft Visual Basic Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions, 32-bit only, for Windows, version 4.0

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. Installing any newer version of comctl32.dll fixes the problem. An updated version of comctl32.dll can be downloaded from the Microsoft Software Library. See the REFERENCES section below 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

1. Create a Standard EXE on new installation of Windows 95 (without Internet Explorer installed).

2. Add a reference to the Windows Common Controls.

3. Add a Toolbar control to Form1.

4. Add the following code to Form1:

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

5. 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, refer to the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q167121
   TITLE     : FILE: COMCTLZP.EXE: Comctl32.ocx Updated to Version
               5.00.3828