Resolving Event ID 7043: ‘Load control template file /_controltemplates/TaxonomyPicker.ascx failed

Event ID 7043: ‘Load control template file /_controltemplates/TaxonomyPicker.ascx failed: Could not load type 'Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.WebControls.TaxonomyPicker' from assembly Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c'.

This error is a result of the control “TaxonomyPicker.ascx” not actually required – it was left in accidentally from release. When SharePoint websites start they automatically compile and cache controls in the “/_controltemplates” folder (default location is C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\CONTROLTEMPLATES), which includes the TaxonomyPicker.ascx control. The controls are checked against the SharePoint DLLs (Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal in particular), and thus the error that is raised is actually because the control entry does not exist in the SharePoint DLLs. Hence the event log is actually saying “I have an .ascx file that does not have a matching entry in the SharePoint DLLs”.

The Microsoft supported fix is to modify the ascx file and replace a few characters with a ‘,’. Additional research revealed, from numerous posts, the solution from Microsoft did not work for most. Instead, most, if not all, of the postsmentioned simply renaming this file (specifically the extension) to resolve. Something along the lines of TaxonomyPicker.ascx -> TaxonomyPicker.ascx.old or some derivative there-of.