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When talking about MS Office error messages, it's always a long story. Users would report hundreds of different error messages they received when they open Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. For some common errors like Runtime Error 1004 or add-in template is not valid, we have already introduced how can you fix them. This time, we will talk about another error message - Compile error in hidden module.
Users often received this error message when they start Excel. In rare times, when users start MS Word, this error would also pop up. Usually, users would see one of the following error messages:
- Compile error in hidden module: AutoExec
- Compile error in hidden module: AutoExecNew
- Compile error in hidden module: DistMon
The different suffixes indicate that you have different culprits to blame, and that's why there is more than one solution for you to solve the problem. Before checking the solutions, you should know the reasons why you see these error messages.
Why Do I See the Error Message of Compile Error in Hidden Module?
Now Office 2016 is upgraded from a 32-bit version to a 64-bit version. The Compile error in hidden module error message usually appears when there are dome 32-bit add-ins versions of the office in your computer, and they are incompatible with the 64-bit version.
Two common conditions that would cause this error are as follow:
1. When MS Excel startup folder contains both the following two template files on Adobe Acrobat PDF Maker add-in:
- Pdfmaker.dot
- Pdfmaker.xla
2. Your computer has installed the Norton Anti-virus software.
After knowing what causes this error message, now it's time to apply the solutions. Here we have listed four solutions, you can try them one by one until you solve the problem.
Method 1. Re-register OCX Files with CMD
The first solution you can try is to re-register some basic Excel function files. In this method, we need to apply Windows Command Prompt.
Step 1. Press Windows + R keys at the same time. Type cmd in the run box.
Step 2. Type the following command and press Enter.
For 32-bit:
regsvr32 -u c:\windows\system32\mscomctl.ocx
regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\mscomctl.ocx
For 64-bit:
regsvr32 -u c:\windows\system64\mscomctl.ocx
regsvr32 c:\windows\system64\mscomctl.ocx
Step 3. Now run MS Excel again to check if the error message still exists.
Method 2. Delete .exd Files
The exd file is a control information cache file of Microsoft Office. These files are created when a user inserts an ActiveX control into a document using the Control Toolbox in an MS Office program. You can delete this cache file to see if it can fix the Compile error in the hidden module error.
Step 1. Press Windows + R keys at the same time. Type %appdata% in the run box.
Step 2. It will open your AppData folder. Go to Roaming > Microsoft > Forms.
Step 3. Find the .exd files, select comctllib.exd and mscomctllib.exd, and delete these two files.
Step 4. Restart your Excel and check if the problem is solved.
Method 3. Move PDF Maker Files
As we have mentioned above, one of the reasons you will see this error message is because there are two template files on Adobe Acrobat PDF Maker add-in. So in this method, you can move the PDF Maker files to another place to fix your problem. Here are the detailed steps.
Step 1. Open Windows File Explorer, search pdfmaker.* on your computer.
Step 2. Choose the pdfmaker.dot and pdfmaker.xla files, right-click on both files, and select cut.
Step 3. Paste these two files to your Desktop.
Now you can restart the MS Excel to see if the problem is solved.
Method 4. Update to the Latest Adobe Acrobat
If the above methods can't help you solve the Compile error in hidden module problem, the last resort is to update the Adobe Acrobat to the latest version. It's because this problem is associated with the Adobe Acrobat that is installed on your computer.
Go to the Adobe official website, find the latest version of Acrobat, download and install it on your computer.

How to Fix Word Runtime Error 91?
A runtime error is a common program error that usually occurs in Microsoft Office software. This article will you what is the reason for this error, and how to fix it.

Bonus Solution: Repair Damaged or Corrupted MS Excel Efficiently
With the above methods, you might have solved the Excel Compile error in the hidden module issue. Then we'd like to share a good bonus tool - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard with you.
This is an advanced 4-in-1 specialized fix tool that enables you to repair corrupted PDF documents and Office files in multiple formats. If your documents got damaged, Stellar file repair software will scan and repair them efficiently.
If you want to try on this file repair software, you can download it and follow the guide to see how to use this tool. In the following guide, we have introduced how to repair Excel documents.
Step 1. Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. Select a disk location where the corrupted files are saved. Click "Scan" to start finding the broken files. EaseUS file repair tool allows you to fix damaged documents, videos, and pictures in differnet formats.

Step 2. After scanning, you can quickly find corrupt data by file type. If you want to repair damaged Word, Excel, or PDF, select Documents and filter a specific category. For pictures and videos repair, all the common types are suppored, including JPEG, PNG, BMP, MOV, MP4, GIF, and more.

Step 3. EaseUS file repair software will automatically fix broken files. You can preview the repaired files before recovery. Last, click "Recover" and save the recovered files to a different location to avoid data overwriting.

The Bottom Line
That's all about Compile error in hidden module error message. Hope you can fix your problem after reading this article. Once again, we'd like to introduce EaseUS file repair tool. No matter whether you need to repair Word, Excel, PPT, or PDF documents, applying this tool is a wise choice.
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Brithny is a technology enthusiast, aiming to make readers' tech lives easy and enjoyable. She loves exploring new technologies and writing technical how-to tips. In her spare time, she loves sharing things about her favorite singer - Taylor Swift on her Facebook or Twitter.

Approved by Evan Galasso
Evan Galasso is a digital forensics and data recovery engineer with over 10 years of experience in the field. He presents opinions on the current state of storage media, reverse engineering of storage systems and firmware, and electro-mechanical systems of SSDs and HDDs.
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EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is a powerful system recovery software, designed to enable you to recover files you’ve deleted accidentally, potentially lost to malware or an entire hard drive partition.
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EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is the best we have seen. It's far from perfect, partly because today's advanced disk technology makes data-recovery more difficult than it was with the simpler technology of the past.
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EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro has a reputation as one of the best data recovery software programs on the market. It comes with a selection of advanced features, including partition recovery, formatted drive restoration, and corrupted file repair.
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