This administration and testing tool enables you to browse in a structured way, configure, activate, and test all of the Microsoft Component Object Model (COM) classes installed on your computer.
Using this tool, you can also configure local or system-wide COM settings, including security settings, and enable or disable Distributed COM. You can activate COM classes locally or remotely, which is helpful for testing Distributed COM setups. OleView fully supports the Component Categories specification, which is a core COM technology.
OleView lets you Test any COM class by simply double-clicking its name. The list of interfaces that class supports will be displayed. Double-clicking an interface entry allows you to invoke a viewer that will exercise that interface.
With OleView, you can view type library contents to figure out what methods, properties, and events a Microsoft® ActiveX® control supports. Then you can copy a properly formatted OBJECT tag to the Clipboard for inserting into an HTML document. OleView is oriented toward developers and power users; however, the user interface offers both Expert and Novice modes, which you can toggle between.
OleView displays the registry entries for each class in an easy-to-read format. The registry view (right pane) shows all the relevant registry information, including named values of keys like ApartmentModel.
In the OleView window, currently active items are shown in bold and multiple objects can be activated simultaneously. You can drag and drop a file name onto the window and the tool creates a file moniker and binds to it.
Right-click an object in OleView to see its context menu.
The right pane contains tabs for administering COM class information. You can set Distributed COM options and security as well as change keys like LocalServer32.
From within OleView, you can activate remote servers one of two ways:
For example, to activate an object on \\computer1, enter computer1 and press OK.
You can also specify any moniker display name on the command line.
OleView requires Microsoft® Windows® 2000, Microsoft® Windows NT® version 4.0, Microsoft® Windows® 98, or Microsoft® Windows® 95. You must also have installed either Microsoft® Internet Explorer 3.0 or higher or the Microsoft® ActiveX® Software Development Kit (SDK).
Versions of this tool (then called OLE2View) included with Microsoft® Windows NT version 3.5 and Microsoft® Windows NT version 3.51 are included with the Microsoft® Win32® Software Development Kit (SDK) and Microsoft® Visual C++®.
To correctly set up OleView components, you must run Ccdist.exe, a self-extracting and self-installing file that contains Comcat.dll. Comcat.dll implements the Component Categories manager, which applications use to read and write Component Category information to and from the registry. OleView uses Comcat.dll to list the components installed on a system by category.
OLE/COM Object Viewer Topic
Files Required