Can't load WinRT Component unless I reference the project

Question

I\'m running into an odd problem. I created a Windows Runtime Component (for Windows Store) that makes some legacy C/C++ code available to .NET via some C# wrapper classes.

Answer 1

Well, you're running into several issues here, the first one is that as your WinRT component uses C++, you need to have a reference to the Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Package in your app, this is something that is expected to do by the end user of your component (the app developer), so to do it, right click the References folder in the Solution Explorer of the app and go to Windows->Extensions, there select Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Package from the list of available SDKs and click Ok.

Second, if you plan to keep this component for yourself, it's better that you reference the project as it's the easier way to do, if you plan to distribute it, then you need to create a SDK to be sure that all the pieces are together, note that this is necessary for C++ WinRT components, but not for C# or VB.NET components, the reason seems to be that C++ WinRT components are splitted into metadata (WinMD file) and implementation (DLL file), and even if you put them side by side they're unable to recognize each other, while in C# and VB.NET the metadata and its implementation are on the same file (WinMD). If you want to create an SDK, then read this documentation on MSDN.