COM and DCOM Application Development
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4/8/2010
Run time support is offered for COM-based applications.
The topics in this section describe the programming model for COM. They provide guidelines for the implementation of interfaces, management of memory, and configuration of registry settings. The documentation targets the differences between the implementations of COM on the following platforms:
- Windows Mobile
- Microsoft Windows NT®.
It is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to COM programming. Familiarity with the COM objects and interfaces, type libraries, and essential distributed programming concepts is assumed. Background and conceptual information are available through the following resources:
- For information about component development, see this Microsoft Web site.
- Inside COM, by Dale Rogerson, Microsoft Press Books, 1996, and Inside Distributed COM, by Guy and Henry Eddon, Microsoft Press Books, 1998. For information about these titles and other COM developer guides, see this Microsoft Web site.
Unless it is specified otherwise, the term COM in this documentation refers to functionality that is available in the midrange OS implementation, and DCOM refers to the functionality provided in the full-featured implementation. This use varies somewhat from the desktop documentation, in which a single programming model covers all of the COM services, whether they are in-process, local, or remote.
Note
Windows Mobile does not support DCOM.
The topic COM Supported APIs shows the supported APIs for all implementation.
There is support for the following applications:
- COM provides a midrange implementation of COM and OLE automation that supports only in-process free-threaded objects and requires about 100-200 KB of memory.
- DCOM provides a full-featured COM implementation including services on a remote device and requires over 700 KB of memory. By default, the remoting capability is disabled, which provides a more secure environment for the device. This enables the DCOM's local server capabilities and still allows the device to be connected to the Internet. To enable the remoting capability, set the Sysgen variable SYSGEN_DCOM_REMOTEACCESS to 1.
Note
For information about differences between the COM implementation available for Windows Mobile devices and that available for Windows Embedded CE devices, see COM and DCOM in Windows Mobile Devices.