Powershell cannot use COM object when registration-free COM is used

Question

I am trying to use COM object in regitration-free fashion in powershell. My component is x86 and poweshell_ise.exe is x86 also.

To do this I have created manifest for dll-based com server:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
   <assemblyIdentity name="ComComponent" processorArchitecture="X86" type="win32" version="1.0.0.0"></assemblyIdentity>
   <file name="ComComponent.dll" hashalg="SHA1">
      <comClass clsid="{<CLASS_CLSID>}" tlbid="{<TLB_CLSID>}" progid="ComComponent.ComComponent" description="ComComponent Class"»
      <typelib tlbid="{<TLB_CLSID>}" version="1.0" resourceid="2" helpdir="" flags="HASDISKIMAGE"></typelib>
   </file>
</assembly>

And manifest for the powershell script:

<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
<assemblyIdentity version="1.0.0.0" name="PSScript" type="win32" />
<dependency>
<dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="ComComponent" version="1.0.0.0"
 processorArchitecture="x86" />
</dependentAssembly>
</dependency>
</assembly>

In powershell I am using it in the following way:

$actctx = New-Object -COM Microsoft.Windows.ActCTX
$actctx.Manifest = "<path to manifest>"
$obj= $actctx.CreateObject("ComComponent.ComComponent")
$obj.ComMethod()

After that I am getting the following error:

Method invocation failed because [System.__ComObject] does not contain a method named 'ComMethod'.

I can see that ComComponent.dll is loaded into powershell_ise.exe in Process Explorer. Also I can see that powershell for some reason is trying to read HKCR\TypeLib\{<TLB_CLSID>} registry key.

The same functionality is working in powershell with registred COM. I have tried to put type library into separate file with the same result.

What can be the problem? Thank you

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 03 '19 at 17:41

0

I would try the following approach:

$myDll = Add-Type –memberDefinition @” 
    [DllImport("ComComponent.dll")] 
    public static extern bool myFunction(<parameters>);
“@ -name "myDll" -namespace Win32Functions –passThru

    $myDll::myFunction(<Parameters>) | Out-Null

edited Jun 03 '19 at 17:41

Avshalom

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answered Jun 03 '19 at 15:51

f6a4

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The function I want to call is a member of COM object. It is not exported from dll. So I am afraid this approach would not work. – Nosturion Jun 03 '19 at 18:55

Powershell cannot use COM object when registration-free COM is used

1 Answers1