If you depend on DCOM98 functionality, you have two options: redistribute the updated system files (DCOM98) with your application, or point users at our DCOM98 web release. Pointing users at the web release is recommended if your application will be downloaded from the web, since DCOM95 is fairly large and many users may already have it.
Pointing Users at the Web Release
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If you want to point users at the web release, you can detect whether DCOM98 is installed on the user's system. First check whether the user is running on Windows NT. If so, the user does not need DCOM98. If the user is running on Windows, then check for the registry key
where a,b,c,d is the DCOM95 version number, eg. 4,71,0,2512. This key only exists if DCOM98 has been successfully installed. If you need a particular build of DCOM98, you can use the value of the key to determine whether that build has been installed.
If you determine that DCOM98 needs to be installed, you should point users at http://www.microsoft.com/com/dcom98/dcom98.htm, where they can read the download instructions and release notes.
Redistributing DCOM98
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Before redistributing DCOM98, please read the redistribution section of the end-user license agreement.
If you elect to redistribute DCOM98, you should include the files DCOM98.EXE and optionally DCM98CFG.EXE on your distribution media. You should run these self-extracting executables from your setup program. These executables will install the correct files only if a more recent version is not already installed. They write the correct registry entries required by DCOM98. They do not install anything on Windows NT.
By default, DCOM98.EXE and DCM98CFG.EXE display a EULA and other prompts to the user. DCOM95.EXE prompts the user to reboot the system on completion. If you run either executable from your setup program, you may elect to run the self-extracting executables in "silent" mode. You must prompt the user to reboot the system when your setup program exits if DCOM98 has been installed.
To run either DCOM98.EXE or DCM98CFG.EXE in silent mode, use the command line: