regsitering an active x component using a setup

Hi, I have written an application which creates objects from an ActiveX .exe component which I have also written. The system works fine from the development environment and from executables run from my development computer.

The problem comes when I try to bundle up the entire system into an installable package. I have been using the Microsoft Visual Studio Installer.

To keep things simple, I have created an installation package for the component, and one for the main application. When the component attempts to install, an error occurs "could not register component."

1) Does anybody have some ideas about why that might happen or how I could prevent it?

After the component installation occurs, the component seems to register itself when I double click on it. (the registry adds some keys) Having done this, I installed the main application. Then when I tried to run the main application, an error was reported "class not registered," and a class id different from the class ids shown in the registry is shown.

2) Any comments?

Thanks, Ben

you could try having your program register the dll at start up the first time it is run.

code below

Code:

---

Option Explicit

Declare Function LoadLibrary Lib "kernel32" Alias "LoadLibraryA" _
                            (ByVal lpLibFileName As String) As Long
Declare Function FreeLibrary Lib "kernel32" _
                            (ByVal hLibModule As Long) As Long

Declare Function GetProcAddress Lib "kernel32" _
                            (ByVal hModule As Long, _
                            ByVal lpProcName As String) As Long

Declare Function CreateThread Lib "kernel32" _
                            (lpThreadAttributes As Any, _
                            ByVal dwStackSize As Long, _
                            lpStartAddress As Long, _
                            lpParameter As Any, _
                            ByVal dwCreationFlags As Long, _
                            lpThreadID As Long) As Long
'                            (lpThreadAttributes As SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES, _

' dwCreationFlags param, call ResumeThread to
' wake the thread up, specify 0 for an alive thread
Public Const CREATE_SUSPENDED = &H4

Declare Function WaitForSingleObject Lib "kernel32" _
                            (ByVal hHandle As Long, _
                            ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long) As Long

' dwMilliseconds param, specify 0 for immediate return.
Public Const INFINITE = &HFFFFFFFF  ' Infinite timeout

' WaitForSingleObject rtn vals
Public Const STATUS_WAIT_0 = &H0
Public Const STATUS_ABANDONED_WAIT_0 = &H80
Public Const STATUS_TIMEOUT = &H102

Public Const WAIT_FAILED = &HFFFFFFFF
' The state of the specified object is signaled (success)
Public Const WAIT_OBJECT_0 = ((STATUS_WAIT_0) + 0)
' Thread went away before the mutex got signaled
Public Const WAIT_ABANDONED = ((STATUS_ABANDONED_WAIT_0) + 0)
' dwMilliseconds timed out
Public Const WAIT_TIMEOUT = STATUS_TIMEOUT

Declare Function CloseHandle Lib "kernel32" _
                            (ByVal hObject As Long) As Long
Declare Sub ExitThread Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwExitCode As Long)

Declare Function ResumeThread Lib "kernel32" _
                            (ByVal hThread As Long) As Long
Declare Function GetExitCodeThread Lib "kernel32" _
                            (ByVal hThread As Long, _
                            lpExitCode As Long) As Long
Public Const STATUS_PENDING = &H103
Public Const STILL_ACTIVE = STATUS_PENDING
'

Sub main()
  Call RegServer("comctl32.ocx", False)
  Stop
  Call RegServer("comctl32.ocx")
End Sub

' Registers or unregisters the specified COM server.
'  sServerPath  - server's path, either explicit, or relative if the system can find it
'  fRegister      - optional flag indicating what operation to perform:
'                        True (defualt) registers the server, False unregisters it.

' Returns True on success, False otherwise.

Public Function RegServer(sServerPath As String, _
                                      Optional fRegister = True) As Boolean
 
  Dim hMod As Long              ' module handle
  Dim lpfn As Long                  ' reg/unreg function address
  Dim sCmd As String            ' msgbox string
  Dim lpThreadID As Long        ' unused, receives the thread ID
  Dim hThread As Long            ' thread handle
  Dim fSuccess As Boolean    ' if things worked
  Dim dwExitCode As Long      ' thread's exit code if it doesn't finish

  ' Load the server into memory
  hMod = LoadLibrary(sServerPath)
 
  ' Get the specified function's address and our msgbox string.
  If fRegister Then
    lpfn = GetProcAddress(hMod, "DllRegisterServer")
    sCmd = "register"
  Else
    lpfn = GetProcAddress(hMod, "DllUnregisterServer")
    sCmd = "unregister"
  End If

  ' If we got a function address...
  If lpfn Then
   
    ' Create an alive thread and execute the function.
    hThread = CreateThread(ByVal 0, 0, ByVal lpfn, ByVal 0, 0, lpThreadID)
   
    ' If we got the thread handle...
    If hThread Then
     
      ' Wait 10 secs for the thread to finish (the function may take a while...)
      fSuccess = (WaitForSingleObject(hThread, 10000) = WAIT_OBJECT_0)
     
      ' If it didn't finish in 10 seconds...
      If Not fSuccess Then
        ' Something unlikely happened, lose the thread.
        Call GetExitCodeThread(hThread, dwExitCode)
        Call ExitThread(dwExitCode)
      End If
     
      ' Lose the thread handle
      Call CloseHandle(hThread)
   
    End If  ' hThread
  End If  ' lpfn

  ' Free the server if we loaded it.
  If hMod Then Call FreeLibrary(hMod)

  If fSuccess Then
    MsgBox "Successfully " & sCmd & "ed " & sServerPath  ' past tense
    RegServer = True
  Else
    MsgBox "Failed To " & sCmd & " " & sServerPath, vbExclamation
  End If

End Function

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Dunno if this will help or not