Summary

Synopsis

Discussion

1. Extracting COM for the key file. This option allows you to extract the COM information into the project either when the file is added or at anytime after as long as the file is the key file of the component. Because Windows Installer best practice requires any sort of .dll, .ocx, .exe, etc files to be the key file of their respective component, a project that follows this guideline will be able to make use of this option. There are two main ways to achieve this behavior, either by using the Component Wizard to add the COM files or if the file is already added to the project, one can right click the file either through the Files and Folders view or the Components' Files view and choose the Extract COM Data For Key File option. This will immediately add the COM information through the project and populate the appropriate Windows Installer tables.
2. Extracting COM at build time. The second option allows you to extract the COM information for the components during the build process. This option is often used if the COM server information changes frequently between each build. Just like the first option, the file in question needs to be the key file of the component. To use this option, simply set the component's COM Extract at Build setting to Yes in the Components view.
3. Self Registration. This option allows the file in question to be registered at install time using the SelfReg table. This method is strongly discouraged by Microsoft as it does not use many of Windows Installer's registration features and have a number of caveats and restrictions in terms of what can be registered. This option should be considered as a last resort should you have issues using one of the other methods available for registering COM. This is accessed through InstallShield by right clicking the file in InstallShield, choosing Properties, and checking the Self Register checkbox.

Additional Information