diff --git a/dlls/msxml3/element.c b/dlls/msxml3/element.c
index 70360e5f73d..20cd9b7f928 100644
--- a/dlls/msxml3/element.c
+++ b/dlls/msxml3/element.c
@@ -1243,7 +1243,7 @@ static HRESULT WINAPI domelem_setAttribute(
     domelem *This = impl_from_IXMLDOMElement( iface );
     xmlChar *xml_name, *xml_value, *local, *prefix;
     xmlNodePtr element;
-    HRESULT hr;
+    HRESULT hr = S_OK;
 
     TRACE("(%p)->(%s %s)\n", This, debugstr_w(name), debugstr_variant(&value));