ShellExtension dll with MSI

Question

Hi,
I have created a shell extension dll using C++. It is getting registered with regsvr32 and working fine.
Now I am creating an MSI installer for this , but I am getting the following issues.

1. In the setup project , if I specified "primary output properties " for register as "vsdrpCOM".  On building the setup project I get
   Unable to create registration information for file named 'SimpExt.dll'. I tried changing the dll's OLESelfRegister property to 1 manually in .res file , but that too didnt help.

2. If I change the Register type to vsdrpCOMSelfReg, it fails during installation.

3. I tried adding a custom action using ORCA as specified by http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/windowscompatibility/thread/11c65800-e751-458d-a77c-ae069f44f9f2/

Changed the Register type to vsdrpDoNotRegister and set
Target as regsvr32.exe /s . But that too giving error during installation
[[  Error 1721. There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A program required for this install to complete could not be run. Contact your support personnel or package vendor. Action: RegDll, location: C:\MyExplorer\, command: regsvr32 /s SimpExt.dll  ]]


This dll does not have any dependency dlls as shown by the setup project [ detected Dependencies] .
I have selected the Primary output from the dll project. This consits of the DLL

How can I register a Shell extension DLL (Win32-COM) using Windows Installer MSI ?


thanks
Harish

Answer 1

Hello Harish

As far as I know, the vsdrpXXXX options are only effective for .NET assemblies that are exposed as a COM components. They do not work for native COM components.

I have not tried ORCA custom actions. However, VS setup projects support another kind of custom action:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/d9k65z2d.aspx
In the custom action, you can call Process.Start to launch regsvr32 to register your dll.

Please try this solution and let me know whether it works for you.

---

Regards,
Jialiang Ge
MSDN Subscriber Support in Forum
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Answer 2

Hello

How are you? May I know the current status of the issue on your side? If you have any other questions, please feel free to post here.

---

Regards,
Jialiang Ge
MSDN Subscriber Support in Forum
If you have any feedback of our support, please contact [e-mail].
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.
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Answer 3

Hello Jialiang Ge,
Sorry for the late reply. I was away for some days.

I have tried adding Installer class to the project , but initially it did not succed. After your mail I just tried the sample project http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/d9k65z2d.aspx and it worked.
The wrong thing I was doing was that I was adding the Installer.cs to the existing project.
Later I have added another project to the solution having the Installer class
Override the Install/Unstall methods
public override void Install(System.Collections.IDictionary stateSaver)
        {
            base.Install(stateSaver);
            string assemblyname = Context.Parameters["ASSEMBLY"];
            if (assemblyname != null)
            {
                //System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Break();

                Assembly asm = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
                string asmName = asm.Location;
                int bsIndex = asmName.LastIndexOf("\\");
                string asmDirName = asmName.Remove(bsIndex, asmName.Length - bsIndex);
                string dllpath = asmDirName + "\\" + assemblyname;
                RegisterDll(" /s ", dllpath);
            }
        }
and in RegisterDll added
Process p = new Process();
p.StartInfo.FileName = @"regsvr32.exe";
p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
p.StartInfo.Arguments = string.Format(" {0}  \"{1}\" ", parameters, dllPath);
p.Start();
p.WaitForExit();

In the installer project , Custom Actions - Install , I passed CustomActionData as /ASSEMBLY="MyDll.dll"
Also added code for UnInstall in the same line.
In the setup project I set the Register property as vsdrpNotregister. This is taken care of by the Custom action.

thanks a lot Mr. Jialiang Ge.

Harish

Answer 4

You are welcome, Harish

---

Regards,
Jialiang Ge
MSDN Subscriber Support in Forum
If you have any feedback of our support, please contact [e-mail].
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.
Welcome to the All-In-One Code Framework! If you have any feedback, please tell us.