Summary

Synopsis

This article contains a brief overview of how InstallShield supports COM extraction. More specifically, this article discusses how to resolve issues where an application does not work properly due to missing COM information.

Discussion

This behavior usually occurs when files are included in the project through the Component Wizard or when using the "COM Extract at build" option in the Components view. Both of these are commonly used methods to mark files as COM files so that the proper information is extracted at build time.

The issue is that InstallShield looks in locations specified by Microsoft to be standard COM information areas. If information is located in other areas, this is non-standard COM Information. The "COM Extract at Build" option and Component Wizard only retrieve standard COM information, but the self-register setting allows you to register any file that has non-standard COM information.

To resolve this issue, mark each file as "Self-register" in the Setup Design view in the InstallShield Developer IDE. Also, do not use the Component Wizard to add COM files and do not mark Components as "COM Extract at Build" in the Components view.

Another approach involves adding the contents of a REG file to your project. This can be accomplished manually with the REG File Wizard. InstallShield enables you to import any existing registry (.reg) files that you may have from other installation projects or that you have created outside InstallShield. With this approach disable COM extract at build. Extract the COM data required to a REG file. Import the REG file. Reference the links below for more information - Importing Registry Files and Import REG File Wizard.

Additional Information

For additional information on COM registration, refer to InstallShield Help topics Extracting COM Registration at Build Time and Installing COM Servers.

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