VB6 IDE cannot load MSCOMCTL.OCX after update KB 2687323

After hours of effort, system restore, register, unregister cycles and a night's sleep I have managed to pinpoint the problem. It turns out that the project file contains the below line:

Object={831FDD16-0C5C-11D2-A9FC-0000F8754DA1}#2.0#0; MSCOMCTL.OCX

The version information "2.0" it seems was the reason of not loading. Changing it to "2.1" in notepad solved the problem:

Object={831FDD16-0C5C-11D2-A9FC-0000F8754DA1}#2.1#0; MSCOMCTL.OCX

So in a similar "OCX could not be loaded" situation one possible way of resolution is to start a new project. Put the control on one of the forms and check the vbp file with notepad to see what version it is expecting.

OR A MUCH EASIER METHOD:

(I have added this section after Bob's valuable comment below)

You can open your VBP project file in Notepad and find the nasty line that is preventing VB6 to upgrade the project automatically to 2.1 and remove it:

NoControlUpgrade=1

The problem has been resolved by running the following in elevated command prompt:

command :

cd C:\Windows\System32\
regtlib msdatsrc.tlb

or

cd C:\Windows\SysWOW64\
regtlib msdatsrc.tlb

I hope this helps.