Hi folks. I'm using the UpgradeDLL macro to upgrade DLLs in
"$PROGRAMFILES\${COMPANY_NAME}\Shared\${PRODUCT_NAME}"
When the DLL needs to be upgraded, but is in use, this macro cunningly extracts the file to a temporary location and copies it over the actual location at reboot. In order to reregister the DLL, the macro also adds the following entry to the RunOnce registry key.
"C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\rundll32.exe" "C:\Program Files\Company\Shared\Product\TheDll.dll",DllRegisterServer
Unfortunately, this does not work for me. This is because TheDll.dll has a static dependency (that I cannot change) on AnotherDll.dll that also resides in "$PROGRAMFILES\${COMPANY_NAME}\Shared\${PRODUCT_NAME}". Due to the way rundll32.exe uses LoadLibrary{1}, it does not search my installation directory for dependencies, and so fails to load TheDll.dll. This means TheDll.dll does not get reregistered and so the whole system doesn't work.
I have several choices[list=1][*]Bundle an appropriate version of regsvr32 with the installer and use this to do the RunOnce stuff instead of rundll32.[*]Stick with rundll32 and temporarily add my installation directory to the system path (will this then be used at the time RunOnce keys are executed?)[*]Find another, better, way to make the rundll32 trick work[/list=1]
Can anyone suggest a solution that works for Windows 9x onwards?
TIA - bidger
{1} See the MSDN info on LOAD_WITH_ALTERED_SEARCH_PATH and "the alternate file search strategy" that rundll32, unfortunately, does not use.
Registering dll on reboot - dependency problems
7 posts
A fast solution (assuming you wrote the DLL) would be setting the current directory in DllMain.
Thanks for the suggestion kichik but I think I've found a solution. Writing '"$SYSDIR\regsvr32.exe" /s "C:\Program Files\Company\Shared\Product\TheDll.dll"' to the RunOnce key seems to work fine. I had read somewhere that there can be problems with using regsvr32 like this - maybe one of the reasons NSIS has its own RegDll command? Is this method always going to work? Thanks again.
RegSvr32 is not present on all versions of Windows 95, that's why we don't use it.
I see... Judging by MSDN KB239873, regsvr32.exe should be available on all Windows 95 systems that we target. Therefore I think we've got a solution. Many thanks.
Nope, it is not available on the first edition of Windows 95. There is another page where you can download regsvr32.
Why not extract another nsis exe with no dialog, which is executed from RunOnce and contains the RegDLL bit onInit.
-Stu
-Stu