I have a WPF based ActiveX control (COM interop). I am able to use it correctly by registering the control. When I tried to Reg-Free-COM (using manifest files) the control seems to be activated, but the events (such as mouse click, RequestBringIntoView etc) dont respond. Interestingly, Double click and tab key works.
I read in the this article http://blogs.msdn.com/karstenj/archive/2006/10/09/activex-wpf-gadget.aspx that ” … These upsides come with a price: the ActiveX control must be registered in the registry, which requires some kind of installation such as an .msi. The default gadget installation process cannot install ActiveX. The ActiveX control can’t be access via reg-free COM. …”
Has anybody had a similar experience? Can anyone explain what is going on?
Additional details:
When the control is activated after it has been registered it appears as part of the COM client’s UI. The control does not receive focus, its elements receive it.
When using reg-free-com the control does not load correctly.
1) The control receives focus instead of its sub elements
2) The control has areas that are black instead of the windows default color
3) when I tab in and out of the control or double click it, it’s subelements receive focus, the control starts receiving events and the black areas are replaced by the correct color
I discovered that the control was inactive because the miscStatus attribute which is set on registering COM is required to activate it. I will post a separate question on that.