MMC provides a number of COM interfaces for use in developing snap-ins. Snap-ins implement some of these interfaces and expose them to MMC. MMC implements the remaining interfaces and exposes them to snap-ins to use. As a result, much of the functionality you are likely to want for your snap-in is already available to you.

MMC creates instances of your snap-in as required and calls the methods of the interfaces that your snap-in exposes. In turn, your snap-in can call the methods of the interfaces that MMC exposes, thereby incorporating features such as toolbars, context menus, and property sheets.

MMC implements the following interfaces:

IColumnData (new in MMC 1.2)

IConsole2

IConsoleNameSpace2

IConsoleVerb

IContextMenuCallback

IContextMenuProvider

IControlbar

IDisplayHelp

IHeaderCtrl2 (new in MMC 1.2)

IImageList

IMenuButton

IPropertySheetCallback

IPropertySheetProvider

IResultData

IToolbar

Snap-ins implement the following interfaces:

IComponent

IComponentData

IEnumTASK

IExtendContextMenu

IExtendControlbar

IExtendPropertySheet2

IExtendTaskPad

IRequiredExtensions

IResultDataCompare

IResultDataCompareEx (new in MMC 1.2)

IResultOwnerData

ISnapinAbout

ISnapinHelp2

Depending on the features you want, you may not need to use or implement all of these interfaces in your snap-in. Other sections of this overview refer to these interfaces and their methods frequently, so familiarizing yourself with them now may be helpful.

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Build date: 5/27/2009