How to find a DLL given a CLSID?

Question

I have a situation in which a managed DLL calls some unmanaged DLL. I know the CLSID of the unmanaged DLL, is there any way to find out what binary file houses that CLSID?

Are you trying to do this programatically, or ad hoc? I.e., do you need a program to be doing this itself, or is this something you occasionally need to do as a developer? — cjs, May 22 '09 at 13:35

score 37 · Accepted Answer · answered May 22 '09 at 13:13

37

Normaly, you can just go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\"GUID"

And find a key called "InProcServer32" for instance and there will be the default value that has the DLL. This is one simple way to do it.

answered May 22 '09 at 13:13

BobbyShaftoe

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Worth noting that, depending on how it was installed, you might find it in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID instead. – user1454265 Jun 25 '15 at 16:23
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Which means that `HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID` is what should be used. – IS4 Sep 21 '17 at 12:06
Or HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WOW6432Node\CLSID – Filip Skakun Apr 07 '20 at 08:14

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered May 22 '09 at 13:11

7

Can you not just search for it in the registry using regedit and look for the binary path.

answered May 22 '09 at 13:11

Simon

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score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 08 '15 at 09:05

Based on BobbyShaftoe reply we can build a simple vbs script that reads that registry for us:

Dll_RegPath = "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\<GUID>\InProcServer32\"

Paste the following to "test.vbs"

Sub Main

    ' used to find location of "System.Collections.ArrayList" progid dll
    Const csGUID = "{6896B49D-7AFB-34DC-934E-5ADD38EEEE39}"

    MsgBox srGetDllPathByGUID(csGUID)

End Sub

Function srGetDllPathByGUID( sGUID )
    Const csRegPath = "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\<GUID>\InProcServer32\"

    Dim oShell: Set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
    Dim sReg: sReg = Replace( csRegPath, "<GUID>", sGUID ) ' build str

    srGetDllPathByGUID = oShell.RegRead(sReg)

    Set oShell = Nothing ' clean up
End Function

Call Main

You can also find ProgId by:

ProgID_RegPath = "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\<GUID>\ProgID\"

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 19 '21 at 09:59

I've found this question because I was troubleshooting some incorrectly installed application and my objective was to find and register ActiveX dll given the CLSID (which I've got from app sources). Hence my a little bit hacky approach.

I've issued a search in the directory where I believed the dll is located looking for CLSID in file contents. That did the trick, because it was stored in plain text in resources. I believe it's not always the case, but my problem was solved.

How to find a DLL given a CLSID?

4 Answers4

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