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Visual Basic Concepts

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Debugging ActiveX Documents in Internet Explorer

When you are creating an ActiveX document, you have the full Visual Basic development environment at your disposal, including all debug tools.

Debugging with Internet Explorer

If you switch back to Visual Basic and attempt to stop the project while your ActiveX document is being displayed in Internet Explorer, Visual Basic will alert you that stopping the project will cause an error in the application hosting the ActiveX document. You should avoid doing this by clicking No, then switch back to Internet Explorer and force it to release the reference to the ActiveX document using one of the following methods:

  • Quit Internet Explorer.

  • Navigate to a different document (this can be either an HTML document or another ActiveX document).

    Note   Internet Explorer 3.0 keeps a cache of the four most recently viewed documents, including references to ActiveX documents. The reference to the ActiveX document is released after navigating to the fourth document.

After Internet Explorer releases its reference, you can switch back to Visual Basic, stop the project, and modify it as you wish. When you are ready to view the document again, run the project, switch back to Explorer, and select the address of the project from the drop-down list of addresses.