FEATURE REQUEST: Dll registration is not required

[mlipok]

According to:
https://www.autoitscript.com/forum/topic/149405-using-a-com-property-out-of-not-registered-dll/#findComment-1064413

Dll registration is not required the UDF/script can work out of the box:

How To:

....
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Global $g_sDLLPath = @ScriptDir & "\NetWebView2Lib.dll"
....
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Func _Web_ObjectsInit($sProfilePath = @ScriptDir & "\UserDataFolder") ; Create the Manager Instance
	; A. Create the Manager Instance
	Local $hDll = DllOpen($g_sDLLPath)
;~ 	$oWeb = ObjCreate("NetWebView2.Manager") ; REGISTERED VERSION
	$oWeb = ObjCreate("NetWebView2.Manager", "{CCB12345-6789-4ABC-DEF0-1234567890AB}", $hDll) ; NOT REGISTERED VERSION
	If Not IsObj($oWeb) Then Return MsgBox(16, "Error", "WebView2 DLL not registered!")

	_NetWebView2_ObjName_FlagsValue($oWeb)
....

Please notice that it is important to use global for DLL file path as it can be in different location in case user want to have separate directory for DLL files

btw.
It has been working flawlessly for 12 years in my QuickPDF UDF file.

Could you update yours UDF and examples ?

btw.
As I said on AutoIt forum I will get more involved in this project from the AutoIt programming side (UDF creation) in February.

[mlipok]

example can be found here:
#8

[ioa747]

That is an excellent suggestion! Using ObjCreate with a DLL handle is a great way to avoid registration and administrative privileges.

However, there is a technical distinction here: the method you mentioned works seamlessly for Native COM DLLs (like QuickPDF). My library, NetWebView2Lib.dll, is a .NET Assembly exposed to COM (Interoperability).

For .NET assemblies, simply passing the DLL handle to ObjCreate often fails because the .NET Runtime (CLR) needs to be hosted and the assembly must be loaded into the AppDomain. Usually, this requires either registration or a very specific Manifest file (Side-by-Side assembly) to tell Windows how to handle the .NET-to-COM bridge without the registry.

That said, I find the 'portable' approach very interesting. I will investigate if I can implement a 'Registration-free' method (perhaps via an Activation Context or a Manifest) to allow the UDF to work out-of-the-box as you suggested.

[ioa747]

Now I just did the test
I first ran
https://github.com/ioa747/NetWebView2Lib/blob/main/bin/RegCleaner.au3
to clean the registry from installation residues,
and then I ran
https://github.com/ioa747/NetWebView2Lib/blob/main/NetWebView2Lib.au3
which has the proposed method without registration

in the console I got:
NetWebView2Lib UDF (40) : ==> COM Error intercepted !
err.number is: 0x800401F3
err.windescription: Invalid class string

err.description is:
err.source is:
err.helpfile is:
err.helpcontext is:
err.lastdllerror is: 0
err.scriptline is: 40
err.retcode is: 0x00000000

This confirms that for a .NET-based COM DLL, the simple DllOpen / ObjCreate method is not enough. Unlike native DLLs, .NET assemblies require the CLR to be aware of the registration, or a complex Side-by-Side Manifest, which we don't currently have.