SKETCH OF HOW RESEARCH MIGHT CONTINUE AND RESULTS BE PRESENTED

BROWSEUI Classes

BROWSEUI exposes many classes through its exported DllGetClassObject function. Given that they are properly listed in the registry, these are the BROWSEUI classes for which anyone who knows the corresponding CLSID may obtain a class factory by calling the well-documented OLE32 function CoGetClassObject or get an instance of the class created in one step by calling the CoCreateInstance function. Put another way, these are the BROWSEUI classes that would not have noncreatable in their IDL declarations.

The table below is this study’s master list of creatable COM classes that are implemented in any known version of BROWSEUI. It gives for each class the CLSID together with whatever symbolic name is known, then a summary of the applicable BROWSEUI versions. Additional explanatory notes follow the table.

Names

Class names are taken from the corresponding CLSID_classname symbol if found in symbol files that Microsoft supplies for customer support.

Versions

The BROWSEUI versions shown for each class are inferred from a study of known releases, making reasonable assumptions about likely continuity, especially to suppose that a class exists in all (released) builds of a version if no counter-example is yet known.

This study refers to applicable products and service packs in ascending order of versions and build numbers. Be aware that this is not chronological order.

BROWSEUI started life, in version 5.0, as roughly half of the older SHDOCVW. Many BROWSEUI classes were originally implemented in SHDOCVW. These are indicated by the note “earlier in SHDOCVW”. For the earlier development of any such class, look for the class in the separate list of SHDOCVW classes.

A few BROWSEUI classes are affected by what appears to be some attempt at separating Internet Explorer from Windows in time for Windows Vista. The new core of Internet Explorer is IEFRAME. It must have been created from most of SHDOCVW and BROWSEUI. Presumably, all of BROWSEUI that was solely for Internet Explorer is now in IEFRAME and what remains in BROWSEUI version 6.0 from Windows Vista is needed for the Shell. Inevitably, much is needed for both, such that some classes continue their existence in both the later builds of BROWSEUI version 6.0 and the first builds of IEFRAME version 7.0. The note “later in IEFRAME” indicates that the class is either moved to IEFRAME or duplicated into IEFRAME using the same CLSID from earlier BROWSEUI versions. For subsequent development of such classes, look in the separate list of IEFRAME classes. Be aware that some classes are moved or duplicated less obviously, by assigning a new CLSID for the implementation in IEFRAME, though not necessarily a new name.