Determining the registry keys needed by COM/ActiveX components can be
difficult to do by hand. Thinstall allows you to "record" all the registry keys
a DLL creates during its registration and automatically create a registry script
that should allow it to run on a user's computer without registration.
Requirements:
For DLLs:
The DLL must export DllRegisterServer
The DLL must export DllUnregisterServer
For EXEs:
The EXE must unregister itself with the command-line argument "/UnRegServer"
The EXE must register itself with the command-line argument "/RegServer"
To record a registry script:
1. Add the DLL, OCX, or EXE to your Thinstall project.
2. Right click on the DLL, OCX, or EXE and navigate to DLL/OCX registration
3. Select Record registry script now
Thinstall will then tell the DLL or EXE to unregister itself and then register itself again. Any registry
keys that are created by the DLL/EXE during the second step are recorded to the registry script.
The registry script will be called "dll_filename.threg"
After the recording process completes, the registry script file will automatically be added to your project.
Inclusion of any ".threg" file in your project causes Thinstall to link the virtual registry module with
your EXE at build time.
Automatically recording a registry script at build time
If your DLL/OCX/EXE is expected to change often during development, you may want to have Thinstall
automatically rerecord the registry script at build time. To accomplish this, select the option
"Record registry script during build"
Special Notes: Some COM controls fail to complete erase all registry keys added to your system during "regsvr32 /u file.dll". If this is the case, Thinstall may miss some registry keys during the recording process. To solve this problem you need to record the registry script on a "clean" install of Windows where the DLL/OCX file has not been previously installed. Or, you can consult this page for details on how to manually determine which registry keys are needed by a COM control.