How can you force VB6 to use the DLLs and OCXs from the app directory?

Question

I want to put my dependent files in the app directory.

I seem to remember that you can force VB6 to use the files in the local directory only.

Any hints?

Answer 1

Clay Nichol's answer about the search order is not quite correct. That search order only applies to non-COM components. I.e. only some DLLs, and not OCXs. If you register your COM objects, they will be used from the directory where they are registered regardless of what's in the local directory, unless you use reg-free COM or a .local file.

EDIT:

MakeMyManifest is well spoken of as an automatic tool for creating manifests for VB6 projects, haven't tried it myself. DirectCOM also has fans, again I haven't tried it.

EDIT The MMM website is down. I see here that the author was having trouble with their hosting and has provided another location to get Make My Manifest - download it here.

There is a semi-automatic technique to generate reg-free COM manifests. You can create the manifests with Visual Studio 2008 (you can use a free version like Visual Basic Express Edition). Then make a couple of edits by hand to make the manifests suitable for use from VB6. See this section of this MSDN article for step-by-step instructions - ignore the rest of the article which is about ClickOnce.