How do I silently register a COM assembly on a WinXP computer

I have a C++ console application to which I want to a Windows Form. I don’t want to use MFC because I don’t know how. Instead, I am using a C# to create the COM dll (Class Library). When I distribute the application and the dll to the target computer, I need to register the dll such that the application can see the COM interface and use the class I created in the dll.

I know there are a few methods to do this:

1. Have my application’s installer use regasm – I don’t want to use this because of two things: A. I don’t know its location on the target PC (and even if it exists somewhere, I will like not to hard-code the path to it) and B. I could redistribute regasm with the installer but I’m not sure if Microsoft allows this freely.

2. Have my application’s installer use gacutil – same as above.

3. Use regasm on the development computer to create a .reg file and then have the application’s installer execute the .reg file – there are two issues with this: A. I cannot unregister the dll in the event of an uninstallation and B. executing .reg calls the regedit which asks the user if he/she is sure if he/she wants to add the information to the registry – I would like this to be a silent “yes” and not let the user decide. regedit doesn’t have /silent argument so I gave up on using this.

4. Use Inno Setup installer and register the .tlb file (regtypelib flag) of the COM library – tried and the registration works but the application still cannot create an instance of the class.

5. Use ClickOnce to deploy the application – this is not an option because I would like my application to reside in a certain folder on the disk, not under the user’s Documents and Settings folder.

I should mention that I’m using Express editions for the C++ and C# Visual Studio 9.0. Are there any other ways to register a COM library on a Windows XP computer?

Edit - Update:

I tried the registration-free COM guiding myself from the example from here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms973915.aspx . Leaving aside the problems I had with the manifest, I finally got the application to "see" the COM dll (registration-free). Manifests are now working. Unfortunately, the call to CoCreateInstance() now returns E_OUTOFMEMORY (0x8007000E). To be mentioned that the COM dll has two classes but only for one I create a COM-visible interface (the other one is the class for the Form and I want it to be private). Could this be the issue? Here is some code:

#import "MyGUI_DLL.tlb" raw_interfaces_only named_guids
[…]
static MyGUI_DLL::MyGUI * g = NULL;
r = CoInitializeEx(NULL, COINIT_MULTITHREADED);
// r is S_OK here
r = CoCreateInstance(MyGUI_DLL::CLSID_MyGUIClass, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, MyGUI_DLL::IID_MyGUI, reinterpret_cast<void**>(&g));
// r returns E_OUTOFMEMORY

Thanks for the help.

You should use registration-free com instead. This will avoid every one of the issues you mention, but will also, if used exclusively, prevent your program from working on pre-winxp machines...which shouldn't matter in your case.