Question:
I have a CAB file produced by Wise Installation System 7.0 that contains an application setup.exe. I need to create an HTML file that will download the CAB file. The INF in the CAB file should kick off the actual setup.exe. The problem is that the EXE is not an active EXE and does not have a Class ID. Wise Solutions’ technical support told me that they don’t support Internet Explorer and that this is a Microsoft question. How do I associate a Class ID with the CAB file in order to reference it in the OBJECT section of the HTML file? Is there a better way? Can I even do this? Do I have to http to the EXE and forget the CAB file? I have searched through MSDN library for anything on Class IDs and couldn’t find anything related to this particular topic. I would appreciate if you could assist me in any way.

Answer:
You may be in trouble with the EXE if it isn’t ActiveX. In general, the Class ID is used as a way for the operating system to uniquely determine a given application. It plays a big part in automation features (which includes anything that deals with COM principally) and is almost invariably generated as part of the program.

It looks like Wise Solutions might be pulling a fast one on you. When the CAB file is generated (which is a Microsoft format, so it appears that they do support Internet Explorer), it contains references to the components through the Class IDs. You may want to try putting it up on the site without using the Class ID. If it has only one internal class you may be all right, but if not, I’d contact Wise Solutions again and let them know.