VS2005 – Browser Helper Object (BHO) Tutorial

I have been dabbling with BHO’s for some time, way back with VB6, then tried in .NET, and with C++ as well. There are so many cool things you can do with them. Anyways, most of the documentation out there is sparse and old. I told myself the next time I have to make one, I am going to document it. Well, here it is in all its glory. Sorry if the code formatting is wacked, but you get the picture. I don’t claim to be an expert, but this should work 🙂
just in case, I uploaded it in txt format for better reading here

How to Create a Browser Helper Object in Visual Studio 2005 with C++
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1) Open Visual Studio 2005
2) File->New->Project
3) Visual C++
4) ATL
5) ATL Project
6) Name is whatever you want for this example I use “Company.Browser.Helper” without the quotes

7) The ATL Project Wizard Screen will appear, Hit Finish
8) Visual Studio will load up your project.
9) Right Click on The Company.Browser.Helper project, Add->Class
10) select ATL Simple Object, and click the Add button
11) fill in the ShortName – “BrowserHelper” without the quotes, the rest of the fields should fill in, hit next
12) IMPORTANT: Under Support: Check all boxes (ISupportErrorInfo, Connection points, IObjectWithSite (IE object Support)
13) Click Finish

Now on to the better stuff,

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In visual studio, Solution Explorer, Resource Files, you will see BrowserHelper.rgs, open it and add this to the bottom
(replace the GUID with the GUID that you see at the top of the file like CLSID = s ‘{GUID}’) in the other script code
This will register the BHO with IE when the DLL gets registered


HKLM
{
SOFTWARE
{
Microsoft
{
Windows
{
CurrentVersion
{
Explorer
{
'Browser Helper Objects'
{
{GUID}
}
}
}
}
}
}
}

above where it says ‘Browser Helper’ – you can change those names to be more descriptive, that will show in IE add on manager

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