Re: Installing ActiveX on XP and Vista
"GT" <ContactGT_remove_@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:0251d95e$0$26949$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com...
A slight topic shift from my previous installation thread (which seems to
have died anyway).
I'm putting together an installation (MSI) for my application using the
'setup project' in VS2005. I think I have all the correct files going
where I need, but one particular file is giving me problems. I need to
install an OCX file for our application licensing, but the registration of
this ActiveX component causes an error in the Vista install, but its fine
on XP. The error is: "Module C:\Program Files\...\SASE.OCX failed to
register. HRESULT -2147023898. Contact your support personnel"
Reading round the issue on the web suggests that the security in Vista is
tight and causes problems when registering activeX components. What I
can't find is a workaround / solution, but this must be a common thing to
do during install, so someone here must have encountered it before. My
application won't run without this SASE.OCX component - its our licensing
component and one of the first things opened - in App::InitInstance().
I would like users to be able to install my application without having to
get an administrator account / privileges. To this end, I don't put any
files in the system folder and I only use HKEY_CURRENT_USER for the 2
settings I need to store during install. I do include merge modules,
although I'm not sure if I actually need them and I also don't know how
easily they will install - anyone know what privileges are required to
install these on XP/Vista?
As always, any/all pointers welcome. Thanks, GT.
Normally an installation program would be run with Admin priviledge. But if
it cannot, I think MS now recommends you alter your SASE.OCX component to
self-register in HKCU instead of HKLM, where Admin priviledge is not
necessary. That is, the OCX's DllRegisterServer() function would be changed
to put info into HKCU into HKLM. I think ATL now has a switch that affects
this (and in VS2008, I believe it defaults to using HKCU). If you get the
OCX from a vendor, the vendor would be the one to make this change, of
course.
I think this is a really bad solution to only register a control for the
user installing the app, but that is MS's new philosophy.
-- David