Publish .Net library in COM using Wix Installer

Question

I'm trying to register a library on COM using WiX installer, but it seems to be ignoring me.

What I've tried so far is:

1. Used heat.exe to harvest all the info corresponding to the .dll.

2. Created a fragment containing all the information that I harvested from heat.exe. I copied all the harvested information into a single component, to make things easier.

3. I call the component using a ComponentRef that points to the component containing the related info for the dll to register.

4. I used a custom action to register it to the COM:

<CustomAction Id="RegisterComLibrary" Directory="ComPublishDllFolder" ExeCommand="regsvr32.exe /s [ComPublishDllFolder]MyLibrary.dll />

1. Insert the CustomAction in the InstallExecuteSequence:

   <InstallExecuteSequence> <Custom Action="RegisterComLibrary" After="InstallFinalize">NOT Installed</Custom> </InstallExecuteSequence>

But then, when I try to find the .dll in the COM using oleview or trying to use it with Visual Studio, I can't see it.

What I'm doing wrong?

NOTE: I'm getting the following message while trying to register it manually:

The module "MyComObject.dll" was loaded but the call to DllRegisterServer failed.

Ensure that "MyComObject.dll" is a valid DLL or OCX and try again.

Answer 1

Sorry, it was completely my fault. A misunderstanding of how .Net dlls published in COM work.

When I published my .Net compiled dll in COM and tried to use it in a .Net project, it launched a message saying that I can't use a COM library compiled in .Net, as it is a .Net library.

At first I thought it was a mistake, but actually, if I try to use the library in a C++ project (for example), it works fine.

The problem is that Visual Studio doesn't allow to consum COM libraries published in the same language that you built your project, apparently...