Assessing the Impact to Your Environment

MSXML 5.0 SDK

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Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) 5.0 for Microsoft Office

Assessing the Impact to Your Environment

The following table lists possible scenarios for dealing with the removal of version independence in MSXML 5.0. Locate the scenario that best describes your current situation, then read the notes for installing and using MSXML 5.0 in that environment.

If you… Notes
Never had MSXML upgraded: No action is required. MSXML 5.0 (msxml5.dll) will install side-by-side with earlier versions of MSXML without affecting any existing functionality. Earlier versions of MSXML are typically provided with Internet Explorer version 4.01 or more recent versions of Microsoft Windows.
Installed MSXML 2.6, 3.0, or 4.0 in either side-by-side or replace mode: MSXML 2.6 was shipped with SQL Server 2000 and MDAC 2.6.

MSXML 3.0 is shipping with a number of products, including Visual Studio.Net, Office XP, and Windows XP. It can also be downloaded and installed separately from the Microsoft Web site.

MSXML 4.0 is a separate download from the Microsoft Web site that installs separately.

In either case, MSXML 5.0 installs side-by-side without affecting any existing functionality for these versions.
Installed MSXML 4.0 Beta 1 release in side-by-side mode: All version-independent ProgIDs and GUIDs now point to the MSXML 4.0 Beta 1 release. The Beta 2 release of MSXML 4.0, and the later releases that will upgrade it, will not have version-independent IDs. Therefore, uninstalling or replacing MSXML 4.0 Beta 1 might make version-independent IDs inaccessible.

In this case, you need to reregister or reinstall MSXML 2.0, 2.6, or 3.0 to make them work again. To do this:

  • Open a command prompt window and type the following commands:

    cd %windir%\system32 regsvr32 msxml3.dll (or msxml2.dll if you used or are restoring a version prior to MSXML 3.0)
    xmlinst.exe (to use MSXML in replace mode)
    regsvr32 msxml4.dll

    Note   Regsvr32.exe is only available on computers running Windows 2000 or Windows XP, or Windows NT with the current service pack. For Windows 9x/Me computers, you can copy the Regsvr32.exe utility to your system and register it with the commands listed above. You can also avoid repeating the steps to register it by reinstalling a previous version of MSXML instead.
Installed MSXML 4.0 Beta 1 release in replace mode: This means that you installed the previous Beta 1 release of MSXML 4.0 and ran the Xmlinst.exe utility. In this case, you have replaced earlier versions of MSXML (such as 2.0, 2.6, and 3.0) for various applications, including Internet Explorer, which are now using the Beta 1 release.

With MSXML 4.0 Beta 2 and later, this functionality will be lost. The msxml4.dll file will no longer contain objects that are expected by these applications.

To revert to a previous version of MSXML for these applications, you have two options.

Option 1: Restore MSXML 2.0 as the default XML parser for applications such as Internet Explorer 5. In this case, you should:

  1. Reregister msxml.dll.
  2. Reregister msxml3.dll (if you need it).

Option 2: Restore MSXML 3.0 in replace mode. This restores default handling for XML files and XSLT style sheets in applications such as Internet Explorer. In this case you should:

  1. Remove msxml4*.dll.
  2. Reinstall (or reregister) msxml3.dll.
  3. Run the Xmlinst.exe utility.
  4. Install MSXML 4.0 Beta 2 or later.
    Note   You can override the default XML file handling of Internet Explorer by using script in your Web pages. For more information, see Workarounds to Version Independence.

See Also

GUID and ProgID Information | Why Version-Independent GUIDs and ProgIDs Were Removed | Dependencies in MSXML 5.0 | MSXML 5.0 and Windows XP

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