Hi I am wondering if the dcomcnfg.exe can only be used with Windows executables. I have registered a Multi-threaded COM dll but it never shows up in dcomcnfg despite the fact that the registration succeeded.

Is my assumption correct that dcomcnfg is only for exe files?

Simon

DCOM only applies to EXE servers. DLL servers are in process and have no external registration unless you register them inside of COM+ in which case you have to configure the COM+ container not the DLL or DCOMCnfg.

In process servers (DLLs) run inside of the host process so they become part of the process and all of it's security machinations. EXE servers are self-contained and external and can run in completely different security - and machine - environments and therefore need to be configured.

The default COM configuration is passthrough where the launching process passes on the security to the EXE server which is effectively the same as INTERACTIVE user. Gets more tricky with system usage like IIS, but the same idea applies there, except that the passthrough account is whatever IIS runs under.

+++ Rick ---

I thought that might be the case. So since I need to change some security settings I will have to do it with the host process which is an ISAPI dll. It appears that my MT DLL does not have the correct security to launch. It works fine if I call it from a regular Windows exe but fails when called from the ISAPI extension.

Thanks, Simon

You likely need to make sure the Application Pool host process has rights to do what your COM object needs to do. You can start with SYSTEM or an Admin account to make sure it works, then dial back the permissions as needed with a different account.

+++ Rick ---