ActiveX Control to Access Client-Side Devices

[JabbaTheNut]

Is it possible to write an ActiveX control in Visual C# that can access client-side hardware devices and does not require the client to have the .Net Framework?

Game Over, Man!

 

[bobisto]

No. If your control is in C# then the client's machine must have a .Net Framework.

 

[JabbaTheNut]

I want to develop a control that I can embed in my web page that will interact with a USB signature pad device on the client's machine. I have a third party ActiveX control that does this now. However, I wanted to develop a better control for use on my site. My client's are all restricted to using IE 5.5 or higher. However, I cannot require that they also have the .Net Framework.

It is difficult for me to understand why the ability to develop controls that interact with the client's machine would be dropped from the .Net strategy. To require that clients modify their operating systems by implementing .Net on the client side seems to be a bit intrusive and short-sighted with respect to web-based development. It seems ridiculous that in order to interact with a client's machine, I would have to dust off my VB 6.0 program to develop an ActiveX control.

Game Over, Man!

 

[bobisto]

Most appropriate language for developing ActiveX Controls for Internet Explorer is C++. I have an ActiveX Control that do simular things. Reads all cd drives on client's machine, then check on which cd device he insert the cd with signing keys and then it read the key and use the key to crypt the file content.