How to deal with .dll dependencies for single .exe project 1

[ErroR]

I have a small application that I want users to run from a network share and would rather that we never need to run an install on each PC. I've written it to handle its own registry entries so that's taken care of.

However, it requires tabctl32.ocx which is a tabs control and it also needs mscomctl.ocx which is of course, the common controls.

Without these files registered on the local workstation, of course, the program will get a hard error when you try to run it. Now, is there any way to do this so that either the program will reference these files from the folder in which it's being run from, or perhaps somehow self register these controls on the machine? Also, is there something I can build into my app so that it can better handle the error and deliver a better message when someone does run it somewhere that these controls can't be found?

We *could* use SMS to push out these controls, that's a very simple package, but I'd rather it be all kinds of self contained.

 

[chiph]

Try writing a "launcher" app that doesn't use these DLLs itself, but checks for their existance (and copies/registers them if needed) before shelling out to the main program.

Chip H.

 

[ErroR]

That might actually work... then all I'd need to do is keep the two executables together, with the needed .dll files.

Hmm....