Using late binding to ActiveX controls in C#

Introduction

Recently, I has to use an ActiveX object (ThumbCtl class) and I had some problems with using an ActiveX control on a Windows Form.

Solution

You must consider that ActiveX controls can't be put directly on a Windows Form. For that, you have to do these steps:

1. Generate wrapper assemblies for your ActiveX object. You can do this using the aximp.exe tool, e.g., aximp.exe c:\windows\system32\WEBVW.dll. Now you have generated two files: AxWEBVWLib.dll and WEBVWLib.dll.
2. Add a reference to AxWEBVWLib.dll to your project.
3. Now use your control like this:
C#

// Create new wrapper instance
AxWEBVWLib.AxThumbCtl axctl = new AxWEBVWLib.AxThumbCtl();
// Add object to specific window (control)
mypanel.Controls.Add(axctl);
// Set dock style
axctl.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
// use OCX control methods (here we create thumbnail for our jpg file)
axctl.displayFile(@"c:\temp\graphics.jpg");