RegSvr32

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computing: software: programming: Windows: ActiveX: RegSvr32

Overview

RegSvr32.exe is the program used to manually register ActiveX modules in Windows. It is usually found in c:\windows\system, c:\windows\system32, or other related folders depending on the version of Windows.

Running RegSvr32 with no parameters causes a message box to pop up on the screen listing the available command-line options. The version for Windows 98 shows the following information (with clarifications added):

Usage: regsvr32 REDIRECT Template:fmt/arg/opt [ </s> ] [ <n> ] [ <i[:cmdline]> ] dllname /u – unregister server (i.e. unregister the file dllname as an ActiveX server) /s – silent; display no message boxes /c – console output /i – call dllinstall passing it an optional [ <cmdline> ]; when used with /u, calls dlluninstall /n – do not call DllRegisterServer; this option must be used only with /i

If you are doing a lot of installing or uninstalling of ActiveX modules on a particular system, it is a fairly simple matter to add those actions to your right-click menu (Note: I know from experience that this works in Windows 95, but I was not able to get it to work with Windows 98 so I may have some detail wrong):

• In Windows Explorer, click on the Tools menu
• Select Folder Options...
• Select the File Types tab
• If the "Application" type already exists and is non-editable, you can make it editable by running RegEdit and deleting the key "\\My Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\EditFlags". (If the "Application" type does not exist, create it, or look to see if .exe files are handled by a differently-named type. The name of the type will be whatever Explorer shows as the "Type" for .exe files.)
• Add the action "register", with the command as "(path)\regsvr32.exe %1"
• Add the action "unregister", with the command as "(path)\regsvr32.exe /u %1"