COM Object Released But DLL Still In Memory

[Crazy Joe Devola]

Hi, I have a program that uses a COM object. At somepoint I try to release the object. After I do the release process, I can see using Process Explorer that the ActiveX DLL is still in memory. My code is below. Am I doing something wrong? Why is the DLL still in memory? ComReleaseTest.DLL is a test VB ActiveX DLL I wrote to debug this problem. It does nothing - all it has is one test sub which I am not even calling. #include "stdafx.h" #import "..\ProductTree\winpos\drv32\ComReleaseTest.dll" no_namespace _CComReleaseTestPtr m_Srv; int Close(); void ReleaseObject(); int main(int argc, char* argv[]) { HRESULT hResult; try { if ( TRUE ) { hResult = CoInitialize( NULL ); if ( hResult != S_OK ) { return 1; } } HRESULT hr = m_Srv.CreateInstance(__uuidof( CComReleaseTest ), NULL, CLSCTX_ALL); if (FAILED(hr)) _com_issue_error(hr); } catch(_com_error& e) { return (1); } Close(); return (0); } int Close() { long Result = 0; if ( m_Srv != NULL ) { TRY { ReleaseObject(); } CATCH_ALL(e) { TCHAR sError[255]; e->GetErrorMessage(sError,255); } END_CATCH_ALL } return ( (short)Result ); } void ReleaseObject() { // Disconnect from VB ActiveX try { m_Srv.Release(); } catch(_com_error& e) { // } free(m_Srv); m_Srv.Detach(); m_Srv = NULL; } The reason I am trying to track this is that I have anotehr program that at somepoint calls an InstallShield 5.5 setup. This setup.exe hangs at 99% and I found that if my program does not call a certain ActiveX then there is no problem with the setup.exe. So I am trying to release that ActiveX before calling setup.exe, but the COM DLL just stays in memory!

[Stuart Dootson]

yaron klodovski wrote:

Am I doing something wrong? Why is the DLL still in memory?

The DLL won't get unloaded just because you've disposed of all the objects you got from it. The DLL stays loaded in case you want to create more objects. You could try using CoFreeUnusedLibraries[^] to unload the DLL (but be aware that CoFreeUnusedLibraries will only work instantly in single-threaded apartments[^].

Java, Basic, who cares - it's all a bunch of tree-hugging hippy cr*p

[Crazy Joe Devola]

Thank you very much. You are a genius! Problem solved. :)