You cannot dynamically create an instance of a redistributable ActiveX control supplied with Visual C++

Attempting to dynamically create an instance of one of the redistributable ActiveX controls supplied with Visual C++ fails on machines where Visual C++ has not been installed. However, creating an instance of the same control on a dialog box succeeds.

The redistributable controls supplied with Visual C++ are licensed.

Specify a valid License string when dynamically creating the control.

This behavior is by design.

When Visual C++ is installed on a machine, the entire machine becomes licensed to use the redistributable ActiveX controls as part of the installation process. If an instance of one of the redistributable controls is created dynamically and no License key is specified, the creation will succeed because the control is able to determine that the entire machine is licensed and so will allow itself to be created. However, if the same code that performs the dynamic creation of the control is executed on a machine that has not had Visual C++ installed on it (such as Visual Basic or another application that provides the same control), the creation will fail. In this case the control will not allow itself to be created if a License key is not specified and the machine has not been licensed.

The CWnd::CreateControl method can be used to dynamically create an instance of an ActiveX control. When an ActiveX control is inserted into a Visual C++ project via the Component Gallery, a wrapper class is created that can be used to work with the control. The wrapper class provides two overridden versions of the Create method. One of the versions allows a string to be passed that will be used as the License key when creating the control; the other version does not.

Dynamic creation of one of the redistributable ActiveX controls will fail on a machine that has not had Visual C++ installed on it if any of the following methods are used to create the control:

• The version of the Create method in the wrapper class that does not allow a License key to be specified is used.
• A NULL string is passed to the Create method in the wrapper class that does accept a License key.
• The CWnd::CreateControl method is called with a value of NULL for the License key string.
• IClassFactory::CreateInstanceLic is used with a NULL value as the License key parameter.

Creating instances of the redistributable ActiveX controls via a dialog box template will succeed on a machine that has not had Visual C++ installed. This behavior occurs because the Visual C++ resource editor asks the control for its License key when the dialog template is created. The License key is then cached as a DLGINIT resource in the project's .RC file. At run time, when the MFC dialog box code creates the dialog and its contained controls, the License key is read from the dialog resource and used in the call to IClassFactory2::CreateInstanceLic to create the control.

To allow a licensed control to be dynamically created on a machine that is not licensed requires passing a License key. An application that performs dynamic creation of a control must have the control's License key cached in its own code. This must be done while the application is being designed. For sample code illustrating how to request a License key from an object, refer to the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: The following redistributable controls supplied with Visual C++ 6.0 are licensed and require a license key to be dynamically created on machines that have not had Visual C++ installed:

For more information, please see:

The Visual C++ documentation on the CWnd::CreateControl method.

The Visual C++ documentation on licensing an OLE control.

The Visual C++ documentation on using controls in a non-dialog container.

The OLE Programmer's Reference documentation on the IClassFactory2 interface.