Microsoft KB Archive/173091

= How To Programmatically Register and Unregister .OCX Files =

Article ID: 173091

Article Last Modified on 7/1/2004

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Control Creation Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Learning Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Learning Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Enterprise Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Enterprise Edition

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This article was previously published under Q173091



SUMMARY
This article describes how to programmatically register and unregister ActiveX controls (.OCXs).

Microsoft Visual Basic ships with several ActiveX controls (.OCX files). These files are automatically registered by the Visual Basic setup program during installation. Developers often desire to register or unregister these and/or their own controls at will. This can be accomplished by using a tool such as RegSvr32.EXE or it can be done programmatically through Visual Basic code.

The ActiveX control framework supports the DllRegisterServer and DllUnregisterServer entry points. These entry points can be declared as functions in your Visual Basic code and then called to register and unregister the ActiveX control.



MORE INFORMATION
The following example demonstrates how to write a code module that can be used to register and unregister an ActiveX control, specifically the Microsoft Windows Common Controls found in ComCtl32.OCX.

Step-by-Step Example
 Create a new Standard Exe project in Visual Basic. Add a Module (Module1) to the project.  Add the following code to the General Declarations section of Module1: Public Declare Function RegComCtl32 Lib "ComCtl32.OCX" _ Alias "DllRegisterServer" As Long

Public Declare Function UnRegComCtl32 Lib "ComCtl32.OCX" _ Alias "DllUnregisterServer" As Long

Public Const S_OK = &H0

Sub RegisterComCtl32 On Error GoTo Err_Registration_Failed If RegComCtl32 = S_OK Then MsgBox "Registered Successfully" Else MsgBox "Not Registered" End If     Exit Sub Err_Registration_Failed: MsgBox "Error: " & Err.Number & " " & Err.Description End Sub

Sub UnRegisterComCtl32 On Error GoTo Err_Unregistration_Failed If UnRegComCtl32 = S_OK Then MsgBox "Unregistered Successfully" Else MsgBox "Not Unregistered" End If     Exit Sub Err_Unregistration_Failed: MsgBox "Error: " & Err.Number & " " & Err.Description End Sub

 View the Immediate Window (CTRL+G) and type:

UnRegisterComCtl32

Press the ENTER key to unregister ComCtl32.OCX, and then type:

RegisterComCtl32

and press the ENTER key to register the control.

These functions can now be called to register and unregister the ActiveX control, programmatically providing functionality similar to that of RegSvr32.EXE. You can test these functions by right-clicking on the ToolBox and selecting Components from the pop-up menu. An entry for the Microsoft Windows Common Controls 5.0 will be displayed on the Controls tab of the Components dialog if ComCtl32.OCX is registered and no entry will be displayed if ComCtl32.OCX is not registered.

Please note the following:


 * "RegComCtl32" and "UnRegComCtl32" are user-defined names and may be changed to suit your needs.
 * The Step-by-Step Example above assumes that ComCtl32.OCX is located in the Windows\System folder of the local hard drive. If it is not located there, you must specify the complete path to the .OCX file in the Declare statement.
 * "DllRegisterServer" and "DllUnregisterServer" are case-sensitive. It is important that the correct case be used when declaring these functions.

Keywords: kbhowto KB173091

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