What is required to integrate .Net control with IE as ActiveX IE Add-on

Question

Hello

I need to develop a control in .Net that work as IE ActiveX Add-On. I have read many articles related to this and at first I'm confused about the terminology so I'm describing my problem/requirement in bit detail.

The Requirement

I have already developed working .Net control. The core functionality of this control is to read a propritery format file and present information in graphical format.

I want to associate this with IE in a way so that when I drop a file (that control can read) on IE browser window, IE loads my control autometically and can somehow pass the path of the file to my control so that control can read the file and do rest of the things.

Very similar real world well known example is Flash Player and Adobe SVG Viewer. If you open a .SWF file in IE or drag-drop .SWF file over IE window, it autometically loads Flash player. Similarly If you open a .SVG file in IE or drag-drop .SWF file over IE window, it autometically loads Adobe SVG viewer and renders specified .SVG file. Both of this IE Add-Ons are ActiveX add-ons. As I understand they are not pre-loaded.

What I did so far

I have made my control COM visible and registered. I can host it on IE using tag and IE loads it, so it is working fine as .Net based Activex with IE.

I have studied how to develop IE Add-on, I have found most of the example that actually targets Toolbar, ContextMenu etc. I have also studied how to develop BHO. But then I realized that all these examples are something else, that is not what I need.

When I look at IE -> Tools -> Manage Add-on I see mainly three types of Add-on :

1. Browser Extension 2. Browser Helper 3. Activex

Almost all example I have read on .Net are targetting either Extension or Helper, but I could not find how to develop ActiveX Add-on.

Summary

I have control ready with me that is COM visible and is registered. Can anyone throw light that, how can I tell IE that this is Add-On and how can I tell IE that whenever particular type of file is opened in IE, IE need to load this control.

In other words what do I need to do to make my control similar to Shockwave Flash Player and Adobe SVG Viewer Add-ons for IE?

Any kind of tip, reference, example, sample will be great help.

Thanks, Tushar