An assembly manifest is an XML file that describes a side-by-side assembly. Assembly manifests describe the names and versions of side-by-side assemblies, files, and resources of the assembly, as well as the dependence of the assembly on other side-by-side assemblies. Correct installation, activation, and execution of side-by-side assemblies requires that the assembly manifest always accompany an assembly on the system.

For a complete listing of the XML schema, seeManifest File Schema.

Assembly manifests have the following elements and attributes.

File Location

Assembly manifests can be installed in three locations:

• As manifests that accompanyshared assemblies, assembly manifests should be installed as a separate file in the side-by-side assembly cache. This is usually the WinSxS folder in the Windows directory.
• As manifests that accompanyprivate assemblies, assembly manifests should installed in the directory structure of the application. This is usually a separate file in the same folder as the application's executable file.
• As a resource in a DLL, the assembly is available for the private use of the DLL. An assembly manifest cannot be included as a resource in an EXE. An EXE file may include anapplication manifest as a resource.

File Name Syntax

The name of an assembly manifest is any valid file name followed by.manifest.

For example, an assembly manifest that refers to myassembly would use the following file name syntax:myassembly.<resource ID>.manifest.You can omit the<resource ID> field if the assembly manifest is being installed as a separate file or if the resource ID is 1.

Elements

Names of elements and attributes are case-sensitive. The values of elements and attributes are case-insensitive, except for the value of the type attribute.

assembly

A container element. Its first subelement must be anassemblyIdentity ornoInheritable element. The assembly manifest uniquely describes the side-by-side assembly identified by theassemblyIdentity. Required.

The assembly element must be in the namespace "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1". Child elements of the assembly must also be in this namespace, by inheritance or by tagging.

Theassembly element has the following attribute.

Attribute	Description
manifestVersion	ThemanifestVersion attribute must be set to 1.0.

noInheritable

Include this element in an assembly manifest to indicate that the assembly manages theactivation contexts and its objects. ThenoInheritable element must be a subelement of anassembly element. TheassemblyIdentity element should come after anynoInheritable element. ThenoInheritable element is required in the assembly manifest if the assembly is used by anyapplication manifests that include thenoInherit element. AnoInheritable element in an application manifest has no effect. AnoInheritable element has no child elements.

assemblyIdentity

Describes and uniquely identifies a side-by-side assembly.

As the first subelement of anassembly element,assemblyIdentity describes and uniquely identifies the side-by-side assembly that owns this assembly manifest. This is called the DEF-contextassemblyIdentity of the assembly manifest.

As the first subelement of adependentAssembly element,assemblyIdentity describes and uniquely identifies a side-by-side assembly that is used by the DEF-contextassemblyIdentity. This is called a REF-contextassemblyIdentity of the assembly manifest. The DEF-context assembly requires the REF-context assembly to work correctly. Note that every REF-contextassemblyIdentity must exactly match a corresponding DEF-contextassemblyIdentity in the referenced assembly's own assembly manifest.

This element has no subelements. TheassemblyIdentity element does have the following attributes.

Attribute	Description
type	Specifies the assembly type. The value must be win32 and in lower case. Required.
name	Uniquely names the assembly. Use the following format for the assembly name: Organization.Division.Name. For example, Microsoft.Windows.mysampleAsm. Required. Note that in the case of a DLL packaged as a private assembly with a separate manifest file, the name of the assembly must be different than the name of the DLL and the manifest.
language	Identifies the language of the assembly. Optional. If the assembly is language-specific, specify the DHTML language code. In the DEF-contextassemblyIdentity of an assembly manifest intended for worldwide use (language neutral) omit the language attribute. In a REF-contextassemblyIdentity of an assembly manifest intended for worldwide use (language neutral) set the value of language to "*".
processorArchitecture	Specifies the processor. The valid values are x86 for 32-bit Windows and ia64 for 64-bit Windows. Optional.
version	Specifies the assembly version. Use the four-part version format: mmmmm.nnnnn.ooooo.ppppp. Each of the parts separated by periods can be 0-65535 inclusive. For more information, seeAssembly Versions. Required.
publicKeyToken	A 16-character hexadecimal string representing the last 8 bytes of the SHA-1 hash of the public key under which the assembly is signed. The public key used to sign the catalog must be 2048 bits or greater. Required for shared side-by-side assemblies.

dependency

A container element including at least onedependentAssembly. The first subelement must be adependentAssembly element. Adependency has no attributes. Optional.

dependentAssembly

The first subelement must be anassemblyIdentity element that describes and uniquely identifies a side-by-side assembly that is used by the side-by-side assembly that owns this assembly manifest. EverydependentAssembly must be inside exactly onedependency. Optional.

file

Contains files used by a side-by-side assembly. ContainscomClass,typelib,windowClass,comInterfaceProxyStub subelements. Optional.

Thefile element has the following attributes.

Attribute	Description
name	Name of the file, for example, Conctl32.dll.
hashalg	Algorithm used to create a hash of the file. This value should be SHA1.
hash	A hash of the file referred to by name. A hexadecimal string of length depending on the hash algorithm.

comClass

A subelement of afile element. Optional.

ThecomClass element has the following attributes.

Attribute	Description
description	Class name.
clsid	The GUID that uniquely identifies the Class. Required. The value must be in the format of a valid GUID.
threadingModel	The threading model used by in-process COM classes. If this property is null, then no threading model is used. The component is created on the main thread of the client and calls from other threads are marshaled to this thread. Optional. Valid values are: "Apartment", "Free", "Both", and "Neutral".
tlbid	GUID for the type library for this COM component. The value must be in the format of a GUID. Optional.
progid	Version-dependent programmatic identifier associated with the COM component. The format of a ProgID is <vendor>.<component>.<version>.
miscStatus	Duplicates in the assembly manifest the information provided by the MiscStatus registry key. If values for themiscStatusIcon,miscStatusContent,miscStatusDocprint, ormiscStatusThumbnail attributes are not found, the corresponding default value listed inmiscStatus is used for the missing attributes. The value can be a comma-delimited list of the attribute values from the table below. You can use this attribute if the COM class is an OCX class that requires Miscstatus registry key values.
miscStatusIcon	Duplicates in the assembly manifest the information provided by DVASPECT_ICON. It can provide an icon of an object. The value can be a comma-delimited list of the attribute values from the table below. You can use this attribute if the COM class is an OCX class that requires Miscstatus registry key values.
miscStatusContent	Duplicates in the assembly manifest the information provided by DVASPECT_CONTENT. It can provide a compound document displayable for a screen or printer. The value can be a comma-delimited list of the attribute values from the table below. You can use this attribute if the COM class is an OCX class that requires Miscstatus registry key values.
miscStatusDocprint	Duplicates in the assembly manifest the information provided by DVASPECT_DOCPRINT. It can provide an object representation displayable on the screen as though printed to a printer. The value can be a comma-delimited list of the attribute values from the table below. You can use this attribute if the COM class is an OCX class that requires Miscstatus registry key values.
miscStatusThumbnail	Duplicates in an assembly manifest the information provided by DVASPECT_THUMBNAIL. It can provide a thumbnail of an object displayable in a browsing tool. The value can be a comma-delimited list of the attribute values from the table below. You can use this attribute if the COM class is an OCX class that requires Miscstatus registry key values.

ThecomClass element can have <progid>... elements as children, which list the version dependent progids.

The following example shows acomClass element included in afile element.

<file name="sampleu.dll">        <comClass description="Font Property Page"    clsid="{0BE35200-8F91-11CE-9DE3-00AA004BB851}"          threadingModel = "Both"             tlbid = "{44EC0535-400F-11D0-9DCD-00A0C90391D3}"/>        <comClass description="Color Property Page"    clsid="{0BE35201-8F91-11CE-9DE3-00AA004BB851}"     progid="ABC.Registrar"/>    </file>

If your COM class is an OCX class that requires the MiscStatus registry subkey to specify how to create and display an object, you can enable the object by duplicating this information in the assembly manifest. Specify the object's characteristics by using themiscStatus,miscStatusIcon,miscStatusContent,miscStatusDocprint, andmiscStatusThumbnail attributes of thecomClass element. Set these attributes to a comma-separated list of attribute values from the following table. These attributes duplicate the information that would be provided by a DVASPECT enumeration. If a no value is found formiscStatusIcon,miscStatusContent,miscStatusDocprint, ormiscStatusThumbnail, the default values specified inmiscStatus is used. Use attribute values from the following table. These correspond to the bit flags of aOLEMISC enumeration.

Attribute Value	OLEMISC Constant
recomposeonresize	OLEMISC_RECOMPOSEONRESIZE
onlyiconic	OLEMISC_ONLYICONIC
insertnotreplace	OLEMISC_INSERTNOTREPLACE
static	OLEMISC_STATIC
cantlinkinside	OLEMISC_CANTLINKINSIDE
canlinkbyole1	OLEMISC_CANLINKBYOLE1
islinkobject	OLEMISC_ISLINKOBJECT
insideout	OLEMISC_INSIDEOUT
activatewhenvisible	OLEMISC_ACTIVATEWHENVISIBLE
renderingisdeviceindependent	OLEMISC_RENDERINGISDEVICEINDEPENDENT
invisibleatruntime	OLEMISC_INVISIBLEATRUNTIME
alwaysrun	OLEMISC_ALWAYSRUN
actslikebutton	OLEMISC_ACTSLIKEBUTTON
actslikelabel	OLEMISC_ACTSLIKELABEL
nouiactivate	OLEMISC_NOUIACTIVATE
alignable	OLEMISC_ALIGNABLE
simpleframe	OLEMISC_SIMPLEFRAME
setclientsitefirst	OLEMISC_SETCLIENTSITEFIRST
imemode	TOLEMISC_IMEMODE
ignoreativatewhenvisible	OLEMISC_IGNOREACTIVATEWHENVISIBLE
wantstomenumerge	OLEMISC_WANTSTOMENUMERGE
supportsmultilevelundo	OLEMISC_SUPPORTSMULTILEVELUNDO

typelib

A subelement of afile element. Optional.

Thetypelib element has the attributes shown in the following table.

Attribute	Description
tlbid	The unique ID of the type library. Required.
version	The two-part version number of the type library. If only the minor version number increases, all the features of the previous type library are supported in a compatible way. If the major version number changes, code that compiled against the type library must be recompiled. The version number of the type library may differ from the version number of the application. Required.
helpdir	The directory where the Help file for the types in the type library is located. If the application supports type libraries for multiple languages, the libraries may refer to different file names in the Help file directory. If no value, then specify "". Required.
resourceid	The hexadecimal string representation of the locale identifier (LCID). It is one to four hexadecimal digits with no 0x prefix and no leading zeros. The LCID may have a neutral sublanguage identifier. For more information, seeLocale Identifiers. Optional.
flags	The string representation of the type library flags for this type library. Specifically, it should be one of "RESTRICTED", "CONTROL", "HIDDEN" and "HASDISKIMAGE". These are the values of theLIBFLAGS enumeration, and are the same flags specified in theuLibFlags parameter of theICreateTypeLib::SetLibFlags method. Optional.

The following example shows atypelib element included in afile element.

<file name="sampleu.dll">       <typelib tlbid="{44EC0535-400F-11D0-9DCD-00A0C90391D3}"       version="1.0" helpdir=""/></file>

comInterfaceExternalProxyStub

ThecomInterfaceExternalProxyStub is a subelement of anassembly element and is used for automation interfaces. For example,IDispatch and its derived interfaces. Optional.

The default proxy-stub implementation is adequate for most automation interfaces, such as interfaces derived fromIDispatch. The interface proxy stub, and all other external proxy-stub interface implementations, must be listed in thecomInterfaceExternalProxyStub. ThecomInterfaceExternalProxyStub element has the attributes shown in the following table.

Attribute	Description
iid	The IID of the interface for which the proxy is being declared. Required. The value should be in the form: "{iid}".
baseInterface	The IID of the interface from which the one described by theiid attribute is derived. This attribute is optional. The value should be in the form: "{iid}".
numMethods	The number of methods implemented by the interface. This attribute is optional. The value should be in the form: "n".
name	Name of the interface as it would appear in code. For example, "IViewObject". This should not be a descriptive string. This attribute is optional. The value should be in the form: "name".
tlbid	The type library that contains the description of the interface specified by theiid attribute. This attribute is optional. The value should be in the form: "{tlbid}" .
proxyStubClsid32	Maps an IID to a CLSID in 32-bit proxy DLLs.

The following example shows acomInterfaceExternalProxyStub element.

<comInterfaceExternalProxyStub   name="IAxWinAmbientDispatch"     iid="{B6EA2051-048A-11D1-82B9-00C04FB9942E}"     numMethods="35"   baseInterface="{00000000-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}"/>

comInterfaceProxyStub

A subelement of afile element. Optional.

If a file in the assembly implements a proxy stub, the corresponding file tag must include acomInterfaceProxyStub subelement having attributes that are identical to acomInterfaceProxyStub element. Marshaling interfaces between processes and threads may not work as expected if you omit some of thecomInterfaceProxyStub dependencies for your component.

ThecomInterfaceProxyStub element has the following attributes.

Attribute	Description
iid	The .IID of the interface for which the proxy is being declared. Required. The value should be in the form: "{iid}".
name	Name of the interface as it would appear in code. For example, "IViewObject". This should not be a descriptive string. This attribute is optional. The value should be in the form: "name".
tlbid	The type library that contains the description of the interface specified by theiid attribute. This attribute is optional. The value should be in the form: "{tlbid}".
baseInterface	The IID of the interface from which the one described by theiid attribute is derived. This attribute is optional. The value should be in the form: "{iid}".
numMethods	The number of methods implemented by the interface. This attribute is optional. The value should be in the form: "n".
proxyStubClsid32	Maps an IID to a CLSID in 32-bit proxy DLLs.
threadingModel	The threading model used by in-process COM classes. If this property is null, then no threading model is used. The component is created on the main thread of the client and calls from other threads are marshaled to this thread. Optional. Valid values are: "Apartment", "Free", "Both", and "Neutral".

windowclass

The name of a windows class that is to be versioned. Thewindowclass element has the following attribute.

Attribute

Description

versioned

This attribute controls whether or not the internal window class name used in registration contains the version of the assembly containing the window class. The value of this attribute can be "yes" or "no". The default is "yes". The value "no" should only be used if the same window class is defined by a side-by-side component and an equivalent non-side-by-side component and you wish to treat them as the same window class. Note that the usual rules about window class registration apply only the first component that registers the window class will be able to register it since it is not versioned.

The following example shows awindowclass element included in afile element.

<file name="comctl32.dll">        <windowClass versioned="no">ToolbarWindow32</windowClass></file>

Example

The following is an example of an assembly manifest.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">    <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.Tools.SampleAssembly" version="6.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="0000000000000000"/>    <file name="sampleu.dll" hash="3eab067f82504bf271ed38112a4ccdf46094eb5a" hashalg="SHA1">        <comClass description="Font Property Page" clsid="{0BE35200-8F91-11CE-9DE3-00AA004BB851}"/>        <comClass description="Color Property Page" clsid="{0BE35201-8F91-11CE-9DE3-00AA004BB851}"/>        <comClass description="Picture Property Page" clsid="{0BE35202-8F91-11CE-9DE3-00AA004BB851}"/>    </file>    <file name="bar.dll" hash="ac72753e5bb20446d88a48c8f0aaae769a962338" hashalg="SHA1"/>    <file name="foo.dll" hash="a7312a1f6cfb46433001e0540458de60adcd5ec5" hashalg="SHA1">        <comClass description="Registrar Class" clsid="{44EC053A-400F-11D0-9DCD-00A0C90391D3}" progid="ATL.Registrar"/>    <comInterfaceProxyStub iid="{B6EA2051-048A-11D1-82B9-00C04FB9942E}" name=" IAxWinAmbientDispatch " tlbid="{34EC053A-400F-11D0-9DCD-00A0C90391D3}"/>        <typelib tlbid="{44EC0535-400F-11D0-9DCD-00A0C90391D3}" version="1.0" helpdir=""/>    </file>    <file name="sampledll.dll" hash="ba62960ceb15073d2598379307aad84f3a73dfcb" hashalg="SHA1"/><windowClass>ToolbarWindow32</windowClass>        <windowClass>ComboBoxEx32</windowClass>        <windowClass>sample_trackbar32</windowClass>        <windowClass>sample_updown32</windowClass></assembly>