• Create a prg file for the interface
  

begin namespace COMTest

using System.Runtime.InteropServices

[ComVisible(true)];
[Guid("750E557E-9DA6-4508-A36E-C4141D27B5D4")];
[InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIDispatch)];
interface ICOMTester
	
[DispId(1)];
method Output() as string
	
end interface          

end namespace

The GUID needs to be created with the GuidGen.exe tool.

• Create a prg file for the functionality itself:
  

using System.Runtime.InteropServices

begin namespace COMTest

[ComVisible(true)];
[Guid("7D1DF22E-3A3D-431C-8BEE-A2F40C53A249")];
[ClassInterface(ClassInterfaceType.None)];
[ProgId("COMTest.COMTester")];
class COMTester implements ICOMTester
	
public constructor()
	
	return
	
public virtual method Output() as string
	
	return "Hi from my component"
	
end class	

end namespace

• Build the application (i.e. the DLL)
  
• create a snk file: sn - k COMTest.snk
  
• add this snk file as signature to your DLL (Application Properties - Advanced - Assembly signing in XIDE)
  
• build your application
  
• read the public key from the application: sn -T COMTest.dll (upper case “T”) and write it somewhere
  
• create the TLB with administrative rights: regasm COMTest.dll /tlb
• remove the registration again from the registry (with elevated rights): regasm COMTest.dll /unregister
• create the automation server in VO using the created TLB

Possible problems:

• you can encounter error 0x80131044 when trying to create the TLB from a already strong named DLL if the dependencies of your COM dll are not strong named. In this case simply compile your library without the signing option
• you should set the namespace also in the project properties
• the exported class cannot have the same name as the COM DLL itself