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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-24T19:20:05+00:00

I am porting my VB6 installer to NSIS. Looking at the LST file, there

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I am porting my VB6 installer to NSIS. Looking at the LST file, there is a section for bootstrapping files:

[Bootstrap Files]
File1=@VB6STKIT.DLL,$(WinSysPathSysFile),,,..........
File2=@COMCAT.DLL,$(WinSysPathSysFile),$(DLLSelfRegister),,......
File3=@STDOLE2.TLB,$(WinSysPathSysFile),$(TLBRegister),...........
File4=@ASYCFILT.DLL,$(WinSysPathSysFile),,,...........
File5=@OLEPRO32.DLL,$(WinSysPathSysFile),$(DLLSelfRegister),.........
File6=@OLEAUT32.DLL,$(WinSysPathSysFile),$(DLLSelfRegister),,........
File7=@msvbvm60.dll,$(WinSysPathSysFile),$(DLLSelfRegister),,...........
File8=@wshom.ocx,$(WinSysPath),$(DLLSelfRegister),$(Shared),.........

and another for setup1 files

[Setup1 Files]
File1=@drillcycles.pre,$(AppPath).......
File2=@twoz.pre,$(AppPath),.......

In another post, I was warned about distributing the wshom.ocx file (bootstrapping file), saying:

“That wshom.ocx is not meant to be distributed in this way. On
downlevel versions of Windows this might succeed, only to break WSH
and other scripting on the system. Do not redist this library like
this. “

So, I was wondering if there are any considerations for distributing bootstrapping files? should I even distribute them?

Thanks

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    This warning is much more relevant to some of the other files you are installing. Windows can still run with a borked script interpreter but it can’t survive when you accidentally oleaut32.dll or asyncfilt.dll. Which for one is why these files are protected from accidental overwriting by crummy installers, the Windows file system protection feature puts the correct one back immediately.

    The odds that you’ll actually run your installer on a machine that requires these files to be installed are zero. Windows 95 is gone. The odds that you’ll install the wrong version of them if such a borked machine actually exists are very high. Which is one way to put it out of its prolonged misery.

    As long as your installer has minimum counter measures in place to avoid replacing new DLLs with old copies with a simple version check then this isn’t going to go wrong. Don’t worry about it. Do consider that it is time that you stop relying on such ancient tools.

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