INFO: Differences Between DCOM95 and DCOM98 (198600)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Visual Basic Learning Edition for Windows 6.0
  • Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition for Windows 6.0
  • Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition for Windows 6.0
This article was previously published under Q198600

SUMMARY

To enable the latest DCOM components for Windows 95 and Windows 98 computers, Microsoft has made DCOM98.exe and DCOM95.exe available.

The Visual Basic and Visual Studio installation programs install DCOM98.exe. DCOM95.exe version 1.3 is available for download from the Microsoft Web site. This article describes the key differences between these two versions.

MORE INFORMATION

Distributed COM (DCOM) enables applications to communicate between two machines. DCOM is native to the Windows 2000, Windows NT (beginning with version 4.0) and Windows 98 operating systems. DCOM must be installed on Windows 95 computers to enable this functionality.

DCOM98.exe and DCOM95.exe are installation utilities that install or update DCOM components.

The following sections provide specifics about each version.

DCOM98

  • DCOM98 installs the DCOM components on both Windows 95 and Windows 98 computers. The components that DCOM installs on Windows 98 computers are newer than those that ship with Windows 98 and are required by some components of Visual Basic to run properly.
  • DCOM98 ships with Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0.
  • DCOM98 can be installed automatically by the Visual Basic installation program.
  • DCOM98 is available on the Visual Basic installation CD-ROM in the DCOM98 folder.

DCOM95

  • DCOM95 version 1.3 installs the latest DCOM components ONLY on Windows 95 computers. DCOM95 is not intended to and will not install on Windows 98 computers. If you have installed DCOM95 version 1.3, you do not need to install DCOM98 on the client computer.
  • DCOM95 is newer than DCOM98. If you would like your Windows 95 clients to run the latest DCOM components be sure they install DCOM95 version 1.3.
  • DCOM95 version 1.3 is available for download from the following Web site:

    http://www.microsoft.com/com/dcom/dcom95/dcom1_3.asp

Some applications that were created with Visual Basic need to have DCOM installed to ensure that some components run properly. Use DCOM98 or DCOM95 to install these necessary components.

For more details about the specific differences between DCOM95 and DCOM98, please refer to the Release notes (RelNotes.Txt) for each version. The Release notes are installed to the following directory after installation: 
   \\Windows\System\DCOMxx
where "xx" is 95 or 98. The Release notes for DCOM95 are also available on the following Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/com/dcom/dcom95/relnotes.asp

REFERENCES

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

196208 INFO: DCOM98 Release Notes

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:5/12/2003
Keywords:kbDCOM kbinfo KB198600
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