Visual Basic Programming Code Examples

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Returning the installation path of a DLL or OCX using a ProgID

Returning the installation path of a DLL or OCX using a ProgID

When upgrading your existing applications it is always useful to be able to find out where the user has installed existing DLLs/OCXs. The code below will return the installation path of these components.


'Purpose     :  Returns the location that a specific DLL/OCX has been installed and registered to.
'Inputs      :  Class                   The application name and class of the object to return the path of.
'Outputs     :  Returns the path to the file containing the specified DLL/OCX or an empty string if an error occurred.
'Example     :  Debug.Print ObjectInstallPath("COMCTL.ListViewCtrl")
'Notes       :  Requires "TLBINF32.DLL" to be installed and registered on the calling machine.


Public Function ObjectInstallPath(Class As String) As String
    Dim oTypeInfo As Object  'TypeInfo
    Dim oTLI As Object
    Dim oObject As Object
    
    On Error GoTo ErrFailed

    'Create a reference to the object
    Set oObject = CreateObject(Class)
    
    Set oTLI = CreateObject("TLI.TLIApplication")
    'Get the object type library
    Set oTypeInfo = oTLI.ClassInfoFromObject(oObject)

    'Return the object path
    ObjectInstallPath = oTypeInfo.Parent.ContainingFile
    
    'Release references
    Set oObject = Nothing
    Set oTypeInfo = Nothing
    Set oTLI = Nothing
    
    Exit Function
    
ErrFailed:
    Debug.Print Err.Description
    Debug.Assert False
End Function