Question

The description of CoLoadLibrary() says it does pretty much the same as LoadLibraryEx() – loads a DLL into the process. COM classes creation functions – CoCreateInstance() and CoGetClassObject() – both do load the necessary DLL into the process too.

Then why is CoLoadLibrary() needed in the first place and how should it be used?

Answer 1

Have a look at the code:

mov     edi,edi
push    ebp
mov     ebp,esp
push    8
push    0
push    dword ptr [ebp+8]
call    dword ptr [ole32!_imp__LoadLibraryExW (71eb1214)]
pop     ebp
ret     8

So it just calls:

LoadLibraryEx( FileName, NULL, LOAD_WITH_ALTERED_SEARCH_PATH ).

Presumably, the routine merely exists for backwards compatibility — it probably has its roots in Win16.