Hiya Chris,
If it were only that easy ...
I recently created a VB app that has to do that very thing - find a .dll on a machine and register it if it's not registered already. My first attempt at this was a very dirty work-around that actually worked quite well.
Basically, I had to distribute the file with the .dll and I used a small install program to handle the registration.
The install app took a peek into the registry to determine where the SYSTEM folder was located. When I found it, I had to determine if the file existed or not. If it didn't, I'd then copy the file to it's proper location and register it through a simple shell of Regsvr32 - with a hidden window, of course. It took a half-second to run and the user had no idea what was going on.
Again - perhaps not the most efficient way to go about it, but it did work to do it dynamically. I never received a single complaint of it not working properly, or the app failing nor have I had any complaints of other programs mal-functioning on those PCs. I had to do a ton of testing and I'd suggest you test just as much.
If these are users that you are supporting in an office, you can have them try to find the file on their machine, if they can't then just write up a .bat file that they can launch to register it and then get into the program. Really, it depends on how much you trust those users.
If this is something available for download online and people in other countries or across the U.S. will be using your app, then you want to lock it down and make it as absolutely automated as possible. I always felt better allowing my users to jump through a hoop or two if it would save time - but only if they were a couple of doors away. I don't like to let that leash get too long. ;-)
Take it easy!
David Badurina
Davidbase Custom Database Design
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