'comctl32.ocx' or one of its dependencies not correctly registered

Vista on conventional PC, Vista Home Premium 32 bit,
4 GB RAM and 160 GB free space on C:\

Recently, when opening MS Word documents, I see this message: "Component
'comctl32.ocx' or one of its dependencies not correctly registered; a file
is missing or invalid."

I have this file:
C:\Windows\System32\comctl32.ocx

How do I re-register it? And what does registration mean in this context?

In the normal way I would revert to an earlier restore point, but I find
that the only one restore point listed is this morning's, and the problem
arose yesterday.

When I Google I see endless data but no directly helpful information. Any
nudge in the right direction will be much appreciated.

Doug

To register it start the command prompt (in admin mode). Change to the
c:\windows\system32 folder if not there already. Then do: regsvr32
comstl32.ocx
If successful you should get a popup saying "DllregisterServer in
comscl32.ocx succeeded"

"Doug" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Vista on conventional PC, Vista Home Premium 32 bit,
> 4 GB RAM and 160 GB free space on C:\
>
> Recently, when opening MS Word documents, I see this message: "Component
> 'comctl32.ocx' or one of its dependencies not correctly registered; a file
> is missing or invalid."
>
> I have this file:
> C:\Windows\System32\comctl32.ocx
>
> How do I re-register it? And what does registration mean in this context?
>
> In the normal way I would revert to an earlier restore point, but I find
> that the only one restore point listed is this morning's, and the problem
> arose yesterday.
>
> When I Google I see endless data but no directly helpful information. Any
> nudge in the right direction will be much appreciated.
>
> Doug