How to register and un-register ActiveX Controls

This tip describes how ActiveX controls can be registered and unregistered directly from Visual Basic. Every ActiveX control contains two functions that can be called that will instruct the OCX to either register or un-register itself with the system. These functions are DLLRegisterServer and DLLUnregisterServer. The following tip demonstrates how to register and un-register the Microsoft Common Controls OCX, ComCtl32.OCX.

Declarations

Copy the following code into the declarations section of your projects.

Declare Function RegComCtl32 Lib "ComCtl32.OCX" _
Alias "DllRegisterServer" () As Long

Declare Function UnRegComCtl32 Lib "ComCtl32.OCX" _
Alias "DllUnregisterServer" () As Long

Const ERROR_SUCCESS = &H0

Code

To register the Microsoft Common Controls, use this code:

If RegComCtl32 = ERROR_SUCCESS Then
    MsgBox "Registration Successful"
Else
    MsgBox "Registration Unsuccessful"
End If

If UnRegComCtl32 = ERROR_SUCCESS Then
    MsgBox "UnRegistration Successful"
Else
    MsgBox "UnRegistration Unsuccessful"
End If

Note: Each DLL function call may take up to 5 seconds.