Mike, I don't know of a way to do this.  As far as I'm aware you must
register the .NET class for COM use (ProgID, CLSID, etc.).  This is usually
done either by the installer or by regasm.

The help on regasm states this:

/codebase Creates a Codebase entry in the registry. The Codebase entry
specifies the file path for an assembly that is not installed in the global
assembly cache. You should not specify this option if you will subsequently
install the assembly that you are registering into the global assembly cache.
The assemblyFile argument that you specify with the /codebase option must be
a strong-named assembly.

Essentially this means that you must either have the assembly in the GAC,
which requires it to be strong named -OR- it must be strong named to use the
/codebase switch on regasm.

So in all possible cases (with regasm) the assembly must be strong named.

Hope this helps

Mike,

I've just ran a test with another project of mine (CWW, strong named) and
bingo !

Yes it *IS* possible to register and use a .NET assembly as a COM component
even if it isn't strong named.  In spite of the documentation and my previous
reply to your post it does work.

I've replaced the attribute that signs my assembly like this:
/*[assembly: AssemblyKeyFile(@"..\..\PrivateKey.snk")]*/
[assembly: AssemblyKeyFile("")]

(but I've left the explicit version number in AssemblyInfo.cs - although I
don't expect that this will break the ability to register and use from COM -
you will however end up with a lot of registry entries for every build of the
.NET assembly that you make)

I've then first uninstalled/unregistered my old, still strong named,
assembly.  After rebuilding the assembly it isn't strong named anymore and
I've changed my install script like this:

rem gacutil /i protocol.dll
rem regasm protocol.dll
regasm /codebase protocol.dll

When I run it regasm does make some noise (warnings), I get:

Microsoft (R) .NET Framework Assembly Registration Utility 1.1.4322.573
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1998-2002.  All rights reserved.

RegAsm warning: Registering an unsigned assembly with /codebase can cause
your a
ssembly to interfere with other applications that may be installed on the
same c
omputer. The /codebase switch is intended to be used only with signed
assemblies
. Please give your assembly a strong name and re-register it.
Types registered successfully

And after all of this the registry entries just look fine and it does indeed
work identical to the strong named assembly.

So essentially you're expected, because of the old DLL hell, to alway strong
name your assemblies if you're going to do COM.  But you can still stay
unsafe if you want and not use strong names for CCW .NET assemblies.

As a note to the internal workings, I've observed that the registry entry
for my CCW .NET assembly got a string value Assembly which looks like this:

MyAssembly, Version=0.1.0.1, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null

Please note the end of the value specifying null for the public key token,
that's because the assembly isn't strong named anymore.