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wixwindows-installerwixsharp

vsdrfCOMSelfReg equivalent for WixSharp

I am trying to recreate the functionality of a legacy installer using WixSharp. In the legacy Setup Project, some of the third party DLL's were marked "vsdrfCOMSelfReg". I have seen in various places that you can add to the File tag SelfRegCost="0" but it is highly frowned upon.

How can I properly register a COM DLL using WixSharp? Is there a way to just add SelfRegCost field to the File tag for the DLL from WixSharp?

Solution

  • After some further source browsing and experimentation, I figured out how to force the evil approach through WixSharp. I also later discovered that this was somewhat covered by the WixSharp Sample "CustomAttributes".

    "Evil Way"

    File LibToReg = new File("..\Path\To\LibToReg.dll");
LibToReg.AttributesDefinition += "SelfRegCost=1";

    Alternatively (based on the CustomAttributes sample):

    File LibToReg = new File("..\Path\To\LibToReg.dll")
            {
                Attributes = new Attributes() { { "SelfRegCost", "1" } }
            };

    This will generate the following wxs underneath:

    <Component Id="Component.LibToReg.dll" Guid="EABD7A49-26DD-4720-AE5A-AA9EEFD8C91A">
          <File Id="File.LibToReg.dll" Source="..\Path\To\LibToReg.dll" SelfRegCost="1" />
</Component>

    The rest of the generated code looks the same as any other DLL that is installed.

    For reference, here is the original wxs source that was generated from the original Setup Project using "VDProj to WiX Converter" from Add-In Express. I believe the SelfRegCost="0" was added by the converter, but a co-worker may have manually added it in afterwards.

    <Component Id='com_FB7105EC_5352_4561_AE01_405562F0EA1E' Guid='6718170E-0335-4FD6-A1E8-D9E926DDE3EC' Permanent='no' SharedDllRefCount='no' Transitive='no'>
            <File Id='_FB7105EC_5352_4561_AE01_405562F0EA1E' DiskId='1' Hidden='no' ReadOnly='no' SelfRegCost='0' System='no' Vital='yes' Compressed='yes' Name='LibToReg.dll' Source='..\Path\To\LibToReg.dll' KeyPath='yes' />
</Component>