C# .Net App On Windows XP Fails Shell32 Code for Renaming Shortcut

Question

I have a situation where I have a windows Desktop APP in .Net C# that must on both Windows 7 and Windows XP rename a shortcut. I have it working in Windows 7 but on XP this fails.

.Net 4.0 Client Profile and Extended is installed on XP and all other parts of the applciation are functioning on XP. The project has a reference Interop.Shell32 (MIcrosoft Shell Controls and Automation through COM Interop rahter than pinvoke) and the code is simply the following:

var shl = new Shell32.Shell();
argStrLnkPath = System.IO.Path.GetFullPath(argStrLnkPath);
var dir = shl.NameSpace(System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(argStrLnkPath));
var itm = dir.Items().Item(System.IO.Path.GetFileName(argStrLnkPath));
itm.Name = "My Shortcut Name";

The above works in 7 but not XP. The following versions of the Shell32.dll exist:

Win7 Shell32.dll version 6.1.7601 WinXP Shell32.dll version 6.00.29.6242

When I spy the XP shell32dll in the object browser, the same objects exist, so the functionalty should be there (unless I'm not seeing something important).

My project is set to build as x86 platform for both machines. For the reference, I have tried the Embed Interop Types as True and also copy local as False.

I have an msi installer but is there something I need to do on the target XP machine? And should I copy Local? Any ideas on the propper way to get this working?

I have run the code on that XP Machine and receive the following from teh Event Viewer:

Framework Version: v4.0.30319 Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception. Exception Info: System.InvalidCastException

Embed Interop Types for Reference = True: The stackTrace for this error is: Unable to cast COM object of type 'System.__ComObject' to interface type 'Shell3 2.Shell'. This operation failed because the QueryInterface call on the COM compo nent for the interface with IID '{866738B9-6CF2-4DE8-8767-F794EBE74F4E}' failed due to the following error: No such interface supported (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80004002 (E_NOINTERFACE)).

Embed Interop Types for Reference = False: The stackTrace for this error is: Framework Version: v4.0.30319 Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception. Exception Info: System.IO.FileNotFoundException

Answer 1

Issue Solved! I hadn't realized that when you make those types of COM Interop inclusions, they must have a Setup Project (msi installer if going on another system). Also, another caveat is that if you have already created a setup project, you must Add > project Output again. This will automatically pull all of those interop inclusions in under the Detected Dependencies folder. This solved my issue.