deployment - Side by Side manifests, hot or falling from grace? -

we have run in .dll hell problems our clients lately, wondering if sxs installations of requiered .dll's , .ocx's idea. read , succeeded in deploying our application when @ least of dependencies catered through manifest, still recommended way of deploying, or fad last few years , gradually being abandoned?

i don't see why fad. concern in vb6 there never tools update support directly, though vb6 sp6 improved support , xp sp2 provided more complete implementation.

we use time here, though have found 3rd party controls not written , can't work it. lots of vbaccelerator stuff seems "broken" in such way example.

it's rare case don't deploy using reg-free com now, when wrap in msi package. being isolated other products' poor installers (the source of dll hell) big plus, , windows getting better defending in terms of system components helps lot in itself.

the trick finding tools support. i've never had patience work through applying microsoft's sketchy support via sdk tools think others have. there @ least 1 commercial product kind of thing. use our own tools developed in-house.

fad? consider competitive advantage. sure makes easier produce portable software in vb6 too! unlike of runtime library loading , hacking toolkits we've seen german source don't have add lot of fiddley coding programs either. plain old vb6 programs work fine.

the other thing enables per-user deployment, making easy create msi packages install user without elevation rights. we're not producing stealthware customers face high walls within organization , lets them install products offer , on jobs. since aren't touching registry or protected filesystem areas negative feedback admin types has been zero. windows 7 enhanced this:

authoring single package per-user or per-machine installation context in windows 7

the same technique works on vista though don't single-package functionality. building applications isolated makes process easier.

of course sxs means lot more reg-free com , isolation, in vb6 terms that's talking about. dotnet uses it, os uses it. i'm not sure why might lke "fad." perhaps many people have gone quiet on subject through frustration tools, move vb6 else, or because economy competitive right now.