PRB: IHTMLControlElement UUID Changed in Internet Explorer 5

• Microsoft Internet Explorer (Programming) version 5.0

SYMPTOMS

Applications built for Internet Explorer 4 that use the IHTMLControlElement interface from the MSHTML object model may function incorrectly when run against Internet Explorer 5.

CAUSE

The UUID for the IHTMLControlElement interface was changed for Internet Explorer 5.

RESOLUTION

Recompile and rebuild applications that rely on this interface.

Applications that use IHTMLControlElement and must work on machines running both Internet Explorer 4 and Internet Explorer 5 need to detect the installed version of the browser and use the appropriate UUID when referring to IHTMLControlElement.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

Although the GUID for a COM interface should be immutable, according to the COM specification, the IHTMLControlElement UUID for Internet Explorer 4 was unfortunately identical to the IControlElement UUID used by certain Forms 2.0 controls. While this was done intentionally, it led to confusion between these controls, which are typically used in Office applications, and the HTML control element object. The change was necessary to correct this duplication.

REFERENCES

For more information on detecting the installed version of Internet Explorer, see the Licensing & Distribution article on the MSDN Web Workshop.

Additional query words:

Keywords          : kbDHTML kbMSHTML kbGrpInet kbIE500 
Version           : WINDOWS:5.0
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbprb 

Last Reviewed: June 24, 1999