We've been using tallow to create wix v2 fragments and preprocess them a little ready for ingestion in our installer. That works fine for COM DLLs but we're looking for a tool that will allow us to do the same for out of proc (exe) COM servers or just generally any process/function call with a view to automating our install builds. This thread http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.vc.utilities/browse_thread/thread/6fea0ccee422f580 Mentions regcap but kind of tails off without anyone from MSFT giving the full instructions for using regcap. Anyone else have any hints about using regcap? It ships with Visual Studio so I can only assume it has been tested - why so reticent about the docs? Stephen
If you scroll down here: http://installsite.org/pages/en/msi/tips.htm you'll see a program called RegSpy. The source is there so you could modify it if you like. It works with exe servers and redirects the registration entries to a HKCU registry location. It's my impression that automating COM extraction is not encouraged because of the component guid issues it can produce. I've read that the WiX folks discourage it. -- Phil Wilson "Stephen Connolly" wrote in message news:dd58159d-55c5-40e4-b0a8-04e61c92baee@k37g2000hsf.googlegroups.com... > We've been using tallow to create wix v2 fragments and preprocess them > a little ready for ingestion in our installer. > > That works fine for COM DLLs but we're looking for a tool that will > allow us to do the same for out of proc (exe) COM servers or just > generally any process/function call with a view to automating our > install builds. > > This thread > http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.vc.utilities/browse_thread/thread/6fea0ccee422f580 > > Mentions regcap but kind of tails off without anyone from MSFT giving > the full instructions for using regcap. Anyone else have any hints > about using regcap? It ships with Visual Studio so I can only assume > it has been tested - why so reticent about the docs? > > Stephen
> It's my impression that automating COM extraction is not encouraged because > of the component guid issues it can produce. I've read that the WiX folks > discourage it. Fair point, but try keeping track of interfaces changing regularly! Thus far using tallow and fixing up the GUIDs works reasonably well for us. It's not majorly difficult to keep the GUIDs in sync, but obviously wix doesn't do that for free. FYI, I've just come off a call with MSFT. RegCap.exe is not supported. But they still ship it in visual studio. They obviously have some arcane reason for that. Meanwhile, I'll take a look at regspy - TBH that was going to be my next port of call :) Thanks, Stephen
Back in 2003 I was working at Continental Airlines and they had a VB6 team that produced application layer components and client components. They were notorious for changing interfaces. I just told InstallShield to do a COM extract at build and all deployments were major upgrades. Pushing with SMS 2003 to 4000+ machines weekly and everything just worked. Windows Installer is a picky beast and I grow tired of the dogma. People can criticize my solution as not meeting some standard but the truth is it was better then the SMS/Wise installer that preceeded it.
