Difference between Isolated COM and Registration free DLL for COM?

Question

I have read up on the MSDN that there is activation for registration free DLL and Isolated COM but I couldnt find what the difference is?

I am currently using a manifest file depicited in the walkthrough for DLL registration free. Can anyone enlighten me regarding to the difference? I prefer not to have a xxx.manifest at the final destination folder for the installation but yet to keep the registration free of the DLL.

Thank you

Answer 1

They're the same thing.

"Isolated COM" is what Visual Studio guys call it [1], "Registration-free COM" or "Registration-free Activation" is what .NET guys call it [2] [3] [4].

The supporting technology is "Isolated Applications" [5]. However, to really understand the COM side of it, I highly recommend reading [3] and [4] (walkthroughs).