Registration-free COM interop is a Microsoft technology that activates COM components without using the Windows registry to store COM registration information.
Registration-free COM interop is a Microsoft technology that activates COM components without using the Windows registry to store COM registration information. Instead of registering a COM component on a computer during deployment, you create Win32-style manifest files at design time that contain information about binding and activation. These manifest files, rather than registry keys, direct the activation of a COM object.
Using registration-free activation for your assemblies instead of registering them during deployment offers two advantages:
- You can control which DLL version is activated when more than one version is installed on a computer.
- End users can use XCOPY or FTP to copy your application to an appropriate directory on their computer. The application can then be run from that directory.
(from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fh1h056h.aspx with small changes)
