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INF AddComServer directive

  • Article

An AddComServer directive is used within a DDInstall.COM section and registers a COM server. One or more COM servers must be defined in a DDInstall.COM section. This section is supported for Windows 11 version 24H2 and later.

[DDInstall.COM]

AddComServer = com-server-name, [flags], com-server-install-section

Entries

com-server-name

Specifies the name of the COM server being installed. The name is generally the name or description of the COM component being registered. The COM server name must be unique within the INF and is used as the description when the COM class description is missing.

flags

Specifies extra flags for the AddComServer directive. The flags field is reserved for future use and should be left blank or set to zero.

com-server-install-section

References an INF-writer-defined section that contains information for registering the COM server and its classes.

For more information on the COM server install section, see the following Remarks, and for COM servers in general, see COM Clients and Servers.

Remarks

The AddComServer directive causes system setup to register a COM server implemented by a server binary in a driver package's driver store relative path.

CoRegisterDeviceCatalog must be called in every process before calling CoCreateInstance on the COM class. Calling CoRegisterDeviceCatalog makes the COM server registrations available in the process for the COM runtime to use.

Each AddComServer directive in an INF DDInstall.COM section can reference an INF-writer-defined com-server-install-section elsewhere in the INF file. Each INF-writer-defined section name must be unique within the INF file and must follow the general rules for defining section names. For more information about these rules, see General Syntax Rules for INF Files.

An AddComServer directive must reference a named com-server-install-section elsewhere in the INF. Each such section has the following form:

[com-server-install-section]

ServerType            = server-type
ServerBinary          = binary-path
[ServerBinaryWow64    = wow64-binary-path]
AddComClass           = {clsid-guid}[, flags[, com-class-install-section]]

Each com-server-install-section must provide ServerType, ServerBinary and one or more AddComClass, each on a separate line.

com-server-install-section entries and values

ServerType

Specifies type of COM server that is being registered. Each COM server type has a specific set of required and optional entries and directives. Only 0x1 (In-proc) is supported.

server-type-enum Server type Required directives Optional directives
0x1 In-proc
  • ServerBinary
  • AddComClass
  • ServerBinaryWow64
  • ThreadingModel

ServerBinary

Path to COM server binary for native architecture.

ServerBinaryWow64

Path to COM server WOW64 binary for non-native x86 architecture support on AMD64 platform.

AddComClass = {clsid-guid}[, flags[, com-class-install-section]]

This required directive can be used one or more times to register COM classes with optional install sections.

For more information on how to register COM classes, see INF AddComClass Directive.

Example

[ContosoEncoderServer.NT.COM]
AddComServer   = ContosoEncoderServer,, ContosoEncoder_ComServer_Inst

[ContosoEncoder_ComServer_Inst]
ServerType     = 1 ; in-proc
ServerBinary   = %13%\contoso_encoder.dll
AddComClass    = {bb2b85ab-9473-42e5-8d1a-0f01d3879879}
AddComClass    = {f1baf99b-d28a-4ea3-b652-355da082d260}, 0, ContosoEncoderControl_ComClass_Inst

[ContosoEncoderControl_ComClass_Inst]
Description    = %ContosoEncoder_Comclass_Desc%
ThreadingModel = Apartment

[Strings]
%ContosoEncoder_Comclass_Desc%="Contoso H.264 Encoder"

See also