What does registering mean exactly ?

I,m new with VB and ActiveX Control. I've been writing my first application in the past few weeks and I've used a control downloaded from the net. Starting today, whenever I try to use it, I get some error message saying I don't have proper licensing info (or soemthing like that) in order to use it.

Since I'm a bit confused with this I go ahead and ask :

1 - What does registering a control mean exactly ?
2 - How can you know if a control is registered ? And can you get this info if your using NT and are not an admin user ?
3 - How do you know when it is going to expire (if such a concept exist... I'm guessing that's what happen to me with my downloaded control...)
4 - How do you register a control manually ?
5 - How do you Un register a control manually ?

I've been using Inno for deployment with the regserver parameter but I have no idea if it did the job or not. Is there a log Inno creates whenever you run setup file to check what actions were performed ?

Thanks.

Quote:

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Originally posted by johnkoenig
I,m new with VB and ActiveX Control. I've been writing my first application in the past few weeks and I've used a control downloaded from the net. Starting today, whenever I try to use it, I get some error message saying I don't have proper licensing info (or soemthing like that) in order to use it.

Since I'm a bit confused with this I go ahead and ask :

1 - What does registering a control mean exactly ?
2 - How can you know if a control is registered ? And can you get this info if your using NT and are not an admin user ?
3 - How do you know when it is going to expire (if such a concept exist... I'm guessing that's what happen to me with my downloaded control...)
4 - How do you register a control manually ?
5 - How do you Un register a control manually ?

I've been using Inno for deployment with the regserver parameter but I have no idea if it did the job or not. Is there a log Inno creates whenever you run setup file to check what actions were performed ?

Thanks.

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I believe you're confusing two things. Are you getting a nag screen (post a snapshot if you're not sure). I'm guessing that you've downloaded some OCX/DLL that's trialware, and it requires you to purchase a serial number. Once you do buy it, you get a number, which you can use to "register" it...

Confusing terminology, but just consider it as trialware that needs to be purchased.



4: regsvr32 "c:/path/to/control.dll"
5: regsvr32 "c:/path/to/control.dll" /u

I attached the print screen of the error I get.

I still don't understand what registering means though. And is there a way to know if a control will or is about to expire ? I didn't get any nag screen when I installed the control in the first place.