Registering and using out-of-proc COM server in an isolated way (SxS)

Question

Hi,

We have the following configuration: IE->Creates new process->Process uses out-of-proc COM server

We would like to enjoy side-by-side for our new process and out-of-proc COM server which are deployed in an isolated folder. We thought using COM registration with relative path but it looks that when trying to load the COM server, svchost.exe is trying to load it from its working directory – which is C:\Windows\System32.

Now the questions are:

1) Does out-of-proc can be registered with relative path?

2) Is side-by-side supported for out-of-proc COM servers? If so, how?

Thanks, Oleg.

Answer 1

No, SxS does not work for out-of-proc servers (including DCOM). Relative path sounds like a massive hack.

If the client knows the location of the exe it can spawn it on its own, circumventing COM activation. At this point you can create objects implemented in the out-of-proc server because it's class factories are registered w/ DCOM.