WIX 3 : Using HEAT for Visual Basic 6 COM Dlls

Question

I am using WIX 3. I have used heat to create a wxs file for a VB6 dll. The msi creates without any errors, and the installation is successful as well.

All seems to be fine, and I can invoke the component successfully from a VB client.

However, if I invoke the component from an ASP page, I get 0x800401f3.

If instead of the installer, I use self registration (regsvr32), both work fine.

I did a registry difference to figure out what was the difference between self registration (regsvr32) and the installer, and I see the following

1. All entries in HKCR match - all well here
2. regsvr32 adds entries in HKLM, while the installer does not touch HKLM

I am wondering if this is the issue, or am I completely on a wrong track.

MSDN (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms694355%28VS.85%29.aspx) mentions that registry entries are required in HKLM, wondering what am I missing here.

Following is the file created by heat.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi"&gt;
    <Fragment>
        <DirectoryRef Id="TARGETDIR">
            <Directory Id="dirAD70B10292EAB7CAC7171859FBB23AA9" Name="vbdll" />
        </DirectoryRef>
    </Fragment>
    <Fragment>
        <DirectoryRef Id="dirAD70B10292EAB7CAC7171859FBB23AA9">
            <Component Id="cmp9D818C62A6239E8B51E971A0048D0C05" Guid="PUT-GUID-HERE">
                <File Id="filDD6F51EC5018EF4A9A312FFA6AC4257D" KeyPath="yes" Source="SourceDir\vbdll\act.dll">
                    <TypeLib Id="{80D8DA04-72C9-4D36-B269-57D989187ACF}" Description="act" HelpDirectory="dirAD70B10292EAB7CAC7171859FBB23AA9" Language="0" MajorVersion="1" MinorVersion="0">
                        <Class Id="{31BD65B6-9479-40EB-83C0-E717CD4793DD}" Context="InprocServer32" Description="act.def" ThreadingModel="apartment" Version="1.0" Programmable="yes">
                            <ProgId Id="act.def" Description="act.def" />
                        </Class>
                        <Interface Id="{C6D46026-CD7E-4AB0-B3B6-810FBF435BEF}" Name="def" ProxyStubClassId="{00020424-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}" ProxyStubClassId32="{00020424-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}" />
                    </TypeLib>
                </File>
                <RegistryValue Root="HKCR" Key="CLSID\{31BD65B6-9479-40EB-83C0-E717CD4793DD}\Implemented Categories\{40FC6ED5-2438-11CF-A3DB-080036F12502}" Value="" Type="string" Action="write" />
            </Component>
        </DirectoryRef>
    </Fragment>
</Wix>

---

Update : Using the "SelfReg" option for the File makes the ASP client work as well. I read from other posts that this is not to be used. Can someone tell me what's to be done?

Answer 1

To get the installer to put entries under HKLM, the installation has to be marked as perMachine, the default seems to be perUser, as done below.

<Package InstallScope="perMachine" InstallerVersion="200" Languages="1033" Compressed="yes" SummaryCodepage="1252" />

Once this is done, the entries come in HKCR and also HKLM.

I hope somebody finds this useful, took me a good 6 hours..