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version-independent ProgID Key

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Associates a ProgID with a CLSID. This key is used to determine the latest version of an object application.

Registry Entry

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes
   <version-independent ProgID>
      CurVer = ProgID

Remarks

The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes key corresponds to the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT key, which was retained for compatibility with earlier versions of COM.

The format for <version-independent ProgID> is <program>.<component>, separated by periods, no spaces, and no version number. The version-independent ProgID, like the ProgID, can be registered with a human-readable name.

ProgID is the ProgID of the latest installed version of the class.

Applications must register a version-independent programmatic identifier under the version-independent ProgID key. The version-independent ProgID refers to the application's class and does not change from version to version, instead remaining constant across all versions—for example, Microsoft Word Document. It is used with macro languages and refers to the currently installed version of the application's class. The version-independent ProgID must correspond to the name of the latest version of the object application.

For example, the version-independent ProgID is used when a container application creates a chart or table with a toolbar button. In this situation, the application can use the version-independent ProgID to determine the latest version of the needed object application.

The version-independent ProgID is stored and maintained solely by application code. When given the version-independent ProgID, the CLSIDFromProgID function returns the CLSID of the current version.

You can use CLSIDFromProgID and ProgIDFromCLSID to convert between these two representations.

You can use IOleObject::GetUserType or OleRegGetUserType to change the identifier to a displayable string.

If a custom handler is not used, the entry should be set to OLE32.DLL, as shown in the following example:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000402-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
   InprocHandler = ole32.dll

CLSIDFromProgID

ProgIDFromCLSID

<ProgID> Key