Runtime error -2147319784 (0x80028018) with Excel 2013 on Windows 8

I have an Excel application, with lots of macros in it. The macros in the workbook are signed. Some of the macros call Windows API functions and they have been ported to support 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Excel properly. The application works fine on different configurations (Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Excel 2003, Excel 2007, Excel 2010, even some Excel 2013).

The application has been developped on a PC with Windows XP and Excel 2007, using the French Canadian locale.

I have one customer that has the following setup:

• Laptop with Mac OS/X
• Virtual machine with:
  • Windows 8 English
  • Excel 2013 English

When he runs my application, he always gets a Runtime error -2147319784 (0x80028018).

I tried to pin point where the error happens and it seems that as soon as the macros execute something referring to the Excel Object Model (for example: Application.ScreenUpdating = False) I get the error.

I tried to copy the exact line of code that fails in a new Workbook and it works fine without any error.

I have already seen a similar behavior in other versions of Windows and Excel with english versions of the products, and the way to solve the problem was to change de regional settings to US English. I tried it on my customer's machine and it didn't work.

I searched the web and found similar issues with Excel 2002 and I found a post in the Microsoft's Knowledge Base (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320369). This post applies to .NET VSTO applications, which is obviously not my case here. I can't change the current thread's locale as suggested in the article since this is not available from my VBA macros. I tried to copy the Excel.exe file to a 1033 folder and rename it to xllex.dll as suggested, but it didn't work either.

I even asked my customer to completely uninstall all Office products from his machine and just reinstall Excel 2013. Still doesn't work.

Honestly, I'm running out of options here... Can anyone help me solve this problem?

Thank you for your help!

Ghis

"Windows API functions" in a Mac. Can't imagine that'll work. Is your error this? "Old Format or Invalid Type Library" I'd say your code is not compatible with Mac somehow.

I don't know why the code would fail on a minor issue like Application.ScreenUpdating = False; but you already concluded that line by itself wasn't the problem anyway.

Sounds like you'll need to rewrite your code for the Mac.