COM Interop
The Component Object Model (COM) allows an object to expose its functionality to other components and to host applications. Most of today's software includes COM objects. Although .NET assemblies are the best choice for new applications, you may at times need to employ COM objects. This section covers some of the issues associated with creating and using COM objects with Visual Basic.
In This Section
- Introduction to COM Interop
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Provides an overview of COM interoperability.
- How to: Reference COM Objects from Visual Basic
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Covers how to add references to COM objects that have type libraries.
- How to: Work with ActiveX Controls
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Demonstrates how to use existing ActiveX controls to add features to the Visual Studio Toolbox.
- Walkthrough: Calling Windows APIs
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Steps you through the process of calling the APIs that are part of the Windows operating system.
- How to: Call Windows APIs (Visual Basic)
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Demonstrates how to define and call the MessageBox function in User32.dll.
- Walkthrough: Creating COM Objects with Visual Basic 2005
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Steps you through the process of creating COM objects with and without the COM class template.
- Troubleshooting Interoperability
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Covers some of the problems you may encounter when using COM.
- COM Interoperability in .NET Framework Applications
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Provides an overview of how to use COM objects and .NET Framework objects in the same application.
