Check DLL version and unregister DLL in VBS

[jpbrassard]

I'm using InstallShield Express 3.5 to create a Windows Install package for a desktop app. This app uses a custom created DLL that's still in beta and goes through changes almost on a weekly basis. InstallShield lets you do "Custom Actions" through VBS, and my boss wants me to write a script that checks to see if our DLL is registered on the destination system, checks its version if it's there, and unregisters the DLL (regsvr32 /u) if its version is older than the one going to be installed. I've never done much work with the registry or VBS - I need help! Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Josh Brassard

 

[dilettante]

Easiest way to implement the version check may be to just add a Version property, in some easily compared format like:

Major * 65536 + Minor * 256 + Patch

Then your script could CreateObject the object in your DLL and check the Version.

Now, assuming you're talking about an ActiveX DLL... you could make a simple VB ActiveX object that invokes the self-unregister entrypoint in your DLL. See KB article:

Q173407 - HOWTO: Register Your Custom ActiveX DLL from a Client

This tells how to call both self-reg and self-unreg.

Then use this component in your script.

Maybe others have a better idea?