I read few threads regarding sending email and found them lacking common
sense.
All of them involve direct connection to Internet and extra other
components.

I think is is safe to assume that user has one of following installed:
Outlook Express or Outlook and the computer is already connected to
Internet.
Based on that assumption, is it possible to use functionality of one of
these two programs to send email programmatically?
I do not want to use any extra components, and specially Winsock because
such components tend Windows to warn potential user about hazards such
program can bring to his computer and I want to avoid that.
I need very simple thing.
When my program reaches the alert state I want to sent simple email: no
attachments, no body message only subject line filled in.
It should use a default email server and no other questions ask.
Is it possible to do it very simply or it has to be so complicated?
Your thoughts please,
Jack

@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl:

Show quoteHide quoteFunny, Outlook and OE are probably THE worst security risks of all.

What is so complicated about referencing 1 FREE SMTP control, setting a few
properties, and telling it....go ?

http://ostrosoft.com/smtp_component.asp

That is just what I want to avoid: dll, ocx and winsocks etc

What I envision here is just some hook to Outlook or OE to send message.
Anyone else?
Jack
Show quoteHide quote

Show quote Hide quote Well then look up automating Outlook if you must.

And, the Winsock control, or a WinSock class, or just raw Winsock API is
needed since that is what supplies TCP/IP connectivity. ANYTHING
accessing the Internet would need approval from whatever security means a
person uses.

If you must....a Google search for "as outlook.application" yielded about
11,200 hits and this link, the 5th hit returned, addresses exactly what
you want, maybe. (Which took a whole 20 seconds including starting
FireFox and much less time than writing this post.)

Can Outlook Express be automated ? I don't know, this deals with Outlook.

http://www.serverwatch.com/tutorials/article.php/1474711

I can help no further.

Hi,


DanS wrote:

Our company sells a product to do it at:
http://www.nektra.com/products/oeapi/
And we have posted an article with sample code to show how to use some
of the public interfaces at: http://www.nektra.com/downloads.php


Regards,
Sebastian Wain

Won't fly... OE doesn't support automation and Outlook isn't exactly
"Freeware" so you can't count on a user having that monstrosity installed.
Use the ShellExecute method Randy posted. It'll use whatever the user
actually has installed as their default email client.

I like that, but I need that to be sent it automatically, without user
interference.
Jack

Show quoteHide quote

Ha! Good luck trying to sell s/w to corporations when you apparently don't
even know how to use a timer or react to certain events.

Timer?
To react to certain events?

Can you be please less enigmatic, Dan?
If you mean using FindWindow on timer and then using SendKeys it is NOT the
solution I am looking toward to.
Jack
Show quoteHide quote

Show quote Hide quote (OK, I'll bite.)

You said with 'no user interuption', which I sure you meant sending mail
with no 'user intervention'.

If you don't want a user to initiate sending of this 'subject only' e-
mail, what will then be used to trigger sending it ?

I assume you want your program to running there in the background,
waiting for something to happen that you want to report to someone via e-
mail.

What is that something ?

I don't know about OP, but I am a corporate developer and I use background
emailing all the time.  Error reports, task complete reports, etc,. are just
a couple of examples of the usefulness of background emailing.  I started
with Outlook (OL 2000) was easy.  I then shifted to CDONTS and then to
CDOSYS.  By putting these into a VB class, I was able to hide the changes in
the implementation.

Mike Ober.

Show quoteHide quote

I never said background e-mailing was un-common, or anything like that.

We don't know what the OP wanted either, other than to background e-mail,
using Outlook, apparently. My comment was in reference to the programming
skills of the OP, or Jack's ability to effectively communicate what his
wants or needs are, or to comprehend my questions asked of him to try to
clarify what he was looking for. Also how the corporate world would react
to his (possible lack of) communication skills.

IMO, the only acceptable reason for this, to me anyway, would be if he was
from a non-English speaking country, in which case much can be lost in
translation, and I would offer my apologies for being somewhat rude. (But I
don't think this is the case.)

Dan,
My application is pure technical (technological).
It does monitoring of some remote equipment.
When the alert state is reached (and I do not think you want to know the
details) my app makes several phone calls to alert technical department and
it plays prerecorded messages depending on the state of the alert.
Recently I was asked to add the alerting by the email functionality and that
is the reason for me to ask for the proper approach to that problem.
Jack
Show quoteHide quote

You are terribly wrong in the assumption that everyone is using MS email
products. I used MS products until I got sick and tired of the constant
barrage of Spam, viruses etc that was targeted at the weakness in MS
email clients. I switched to Fire fox browser and Thunder bird email
client and will probably never go back to MS. What is comforting is that
I have suggested to many of people I have contact with to try Fire fox &
Thunder bird and many who have tried these products have switched as well.

The choice is yours to make, do you want your application to be
exclusively dependent to Microsoft, or would it be better to have a more
universal products with fewer strings attached ?

I have tried several of the free SMTP controls that DanS suggested and
have found they were as easy to implement as falling off a log.

Good Luck

Duke


Jack wrote:
Show quoteHide quote

Corporate users are tied to MS applications and I am targeting corporate
users.
Jack

Show quoteHide quote

In that case, use the CDOSYS.dll that is installed in all versions of
Windows 2000 and later.  It's part of the OS and is easy to use.  Search
google for CDOSYS for easy examples.  The MSDN examples are excessively
cluttered with descriptions of ADO and other stuff that you don't need to
understand to use CDOSYS.

The only gotcha with CDOSYS is that you must create a new CDO.Configuration
object for each email.

Mike Ober.



Show quoteHide quote

Not necessarily true.

The smaller corporations are the one's that would most likely buy your
product, and the smaller organizations are the one's most likely to switch
away from Microsoft towards Linux and products like OpenOffice, due to a
lower cost of switching 50 - 100 users than 1000's.

On Sat, 28 Jan 2006 23:28:56 -0600, DanS
<t.h.i.s.n.t.h.a.t@a.d.e.l.p.h.i.a..n.e.t> wrote:
in <Xns975A4F72CF08idispcom@216.196.97.142>

It's lower cost either way.

---
Stefan Berglund

Stefan Berglund <keepit@in.thegroups> wrote in
Show quoteHide quoteYes, lower cost for the s/w and such, but there's also the cost of making
the switch itself. Initial down-time, re-training people, re-customizing
s/w, etc.

If you search the web for info, you'll find that that is the main reason
many corps. haven't made the switch yet, or that's what I found anyway.

On Sun, 29 Jan 2006 09:35:33 -0600, DanS
<t.h.i.s.n.t.h.a.t@a.d.e.l.p.h.i.a..n.e.t> wrote:
in <Xns975A6BCFC7060idispcom@216.196.97.142>

Show quoteHide quoteIf you search the web for info, you'll find that that is exactly the sort of FUD
that m$ would have you believe.  While I haven't done any automation and most
likely never will, the switch is instantaneous.

---
Stefan Berglund

http://vbnet.mvps.org/code/shell/shellexecute.htm

Show quote Hide quote

I like that, but I need that to be sent it automatically, without user
interference.
How to do that?
I cannot use SendKeys because I do not know, which is default email client?
Jack
Show quoteHide quote

Jack,

I can see your aversion to distributing 3rd party components, but I
would just bite the bullet.   You are already distributing a bunch of
files in the VB runtime.  So just include a 3rd party component.
Typical email SMTP components are very small (the one I use is 144kb).
This way you wouldn't have to worry about half-baed solutions, like
relying on Outlook (who knows what version is installed) or Outlook
Express (what if it isn't setup?  I use Thunderbird and have never setup
OE), which doesn't even have an automation lib exposed.

Just bite the bullet - 3rd party libraries in this case are gonna save
you a whole lot of time.

Regards

Jack wrote:
Show quoteHide quote

Frank Rizzo <nospam@nospam.com> wrote in
Show quoteHide quoteDon't know if there's any chance convincing Jack.

I tell you why.
3rd part components are just the 3rd part components. I do not know what
sits inside them. How safe are they?
We are talking here about computer exposed to other computers on Internet.
I cannot take any risks like that and if that component fails in critical
situation I have to take responsibility for that.
Jack

Jack wrote:
You know nothing about the heater that sits in your garage either.  Or
the fridge, or the television.  What if those things are just ticking
timebombs and some contacts get crossed and blow your entire
neighborhood to smitherins?  Why do you trust those 3rd party
components, but not a software piece.

Also, why is it that you trust VB6.  You don't know what's inside it?
It could be triggered to format the hard drive, perhaps, who knows - you
haven't seen its source code.

Besides, some vendors also sell the source code for their components.
At some point you gotta trust someone.

   You don't have to use any components. You can
write it all in VB. But you do have to use Windows
sockets to connect, and you do, of course, have to
"connect directly to the Internet". How else
would you send email?

   If you don't want to use an email component,
and you don't want to write or use code to connect
to an SMTP server, your only real option is
to show a message box that says, "Sorry, but
this software cannot work until you buy and
install Outlook."

   Someone else mentioned CDO in an earlier
post. Have you looked into that? I don't know much
about it but I know it can be easily used from
VBScript, so it must be fairly simple. The only down
side, as far as I know, is that it's not installed on all
Windows versions.

Show quote Hide quote To hard for Jack.

DanS <t.h.i.s.n.t.h.a.t@a.d.e.l.p.h.i.a..n.e.t> wrote in
Show quoteHide quoteToo ... that is.

Here's a complete mail sending class written in VB 6.  The only caveat is
that it does use the FileSystemObject class for attaching files to messages.
This class tries CDOSYS first, then CDONTS (NT4/Exchange 5.5), and only
then, Outlook.  The FSO references are used to validate files exist
(fso.FileExists()) and file size fso.GetFile().Size) before attaching them
to a message.  The reference to os.UserName returns the currently logged in
user without the domain information.  I.E.  f**@mydomain.com returns "foo".

Mike Ober.

==================================
Option Explicit
Option Compare Text

Private Const BODYLIMIT As Integer = 10240
Private ol As Object
Private fso As Object

Private Const CDOSYS As String = "CDOSYS"
Private Const OUTLOOK As String = "OUTLOOK"
Private Const CDONTS As String = "CDONTS"

Private MailSystem As String
Private SentFrom As String

Private Sub Class_Initialize()
  SentFrom = QualifyAddress(os.UserName)
  Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
  Set ol = Nothing
  MailSystem = ""

  If hasCDOSYS() Then
    MailSystem = CDOSYS

  ElseIf hasCDONTS() Then
    MailSystem = CDONTS

  ElseIf hasOUTLOOK() Then
    MailSystem = OUTLOOK
  End If
End Sub

Private Function hasCDOSYS() As Boolean
  If CreateCDOConfig() Is Nothing Then hasCDOSYS = False Else hasCDOSYS =
True
End Function

Private Function CreateCDOConfig() As Object
  Const Schema As String = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/"
  Dim SMTPServer As String
  Dim cdoConfig As Object

  Set cdoConfig = Nothing
  On Error GoTo noCDOSYS

  SMTPServer = "mail.mydomain.com"
  Set cdoConfig = CreateObject("CDO.Configuration")
  cdoConfig.Fields.Item(Schema & "sendusing") = 2
  cdoConfig.Fields.Item(Schema & "smtpserver") = SMTPServer
  cdoConfig.Fields.Update

noCDOSYS:
  Set CreateCDOConfig = cdoConfig
End Function

Private Function hasCDONTS() As Boolean
  Dim obj As Object

  hasCDONTS = False
  On Error GoTo noCDONTS

  Set obj = CreateObject("CDONTS.NewMail")
  hasCDONTS = True
noCDONTS:
End Function

Private Function hasOUTLOOK() As Boolean
  hasOUTLOOK = False
  On Error GoTo noOUTLOOK
  Set ol = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
  hasOUTLOOK = True
noOUTLOOK:
End Function

Private Sub Class_Terminate()
  Set ol = Nothing
  Set fso = Nothing
End Sub

Public Function SendMessage(SendTo As String, Subject As String, Optional
ByVal Body As String = "", Optional DeliverAfter As Date, Optional HTMLBody
As Boolean = False) As Boolean
  Dim msg As Object

  On Error GoTo NotSent
  SendMessage = False
  Select Case MailSystem
  Case OUTLOOK
    Set msg = ol.CreateItem(0)
    With msg
      .To = QualifyAddress(SendTo)
      .Subject = Trim$(Subject)
      .Body = Body
      If Not IsMissing(DeliverAfter) Then .DeferredDeliveryTime =
DeliverAfter
      .send
      SendMessage = True
    End With

  Case CDONTS
    SendMessage = SendCDONTS(SendTo, Subject, Body)

  Case CDOSYS
    Set msg = CreateObject("CDO.Message")
    With msg
      Set .Configuration = CreateCDOConfig()
      .To = QualifyAddress(SendTo)
      .From = SentFrom
      If HTMLBody Then .HTMLBody = Body Else .textBody = Body
      .Subject = Trim$(Subject)
      .send
      SendMessage = True
    End With
  End Select

CleanUp:
  Set msg = Nothing
  Exit Function

NotSent:
  logs.WriteLog Err.Description
  Resume CleanUp
End Function

Public Function SendFileAsAttachment(SendTo As String, FileName As String,
Optional Subject As String = "", Optional Body As String = "") As Boolean
  Dim msg As Object
  Dim i As Integer
  Dim v As Variant

  On Error GoTo NotSent
  SendFileAsAttachment = False
  If Subject = "" Then
    Subject = FileName
    i = InStrRev(Subject, "\")
    If i > 0 Then Subject = Mid$(Subject, i + 1)
  End If

  Select Case MailSystem
  Case OUTLOOK
    Set msg = ol.CreateItem(0)
    With msg
      .To = QualifyAddress(SendTo)
      .Body = Body
      .Subject = Trim$(Subject)
      For Each v In Split(FileName, ",")
        If fso.FileExists(CStr(v)) Then .Attachments.Add CStr(v)
      Next v
      .send
      SendFileAsAttachment = True
    End With

  Case CDONTS
    SendFileAsAttachment = SendCDONTS(SendTo, Subject, Body, FileName)

  Case CDOSYS
    Set msg = CreateObject("CDO.Message")
    With msg
      Set .Configuration = CreateCDOConfig()
      .To = QualifyAddress(SendTo)
      .From = SentFrom
      .textBody = Body
      .Subject = Trim$(Subject)
      For Each v In Split(FileName, ",")
        If fso.FileExists(CStr(v)) Then .AddAttachment CStr(v)
      Next v
      .send
      SendFileAsAttachment = True
    End With
  End Select

NotSent:
  Set msg = Nothing
End Function

Public Function SendFileAsBody(ByVal SendTo As String, FileName As String,
Optional Subject As String = "", Optional Body As String = "") As Boolean
  Dim msg As Object
  Dim i As Integer
  Dim fnum As Long
  Dim Line As String
  Dim totalbody As Long
  Dim v As Variant

  On Error GoTo NotSent
  SendFileAsBody = False

  ' Check to ensure the attachment sizes are "short"
  totalbody = 0
  For Each v In Split(FileName, ",")
    If fso.FileExists(CStr(v)) Then
      totalbody = totalbody + fso.GetFile(CStr(v)).Size
      If totalbody > BODYLIMIT Then
        SendFileAsBody = SendFileAsAttachment(SendTo, FileName, Subject,
Body)
        Exit Function
      End If
    End If
  Next v

  If Subject = "" Then
    Subject = FileName
    i = InStrRev(Subject, "\")
    If i > 0 Then Subject = Mid$(Subject, i + 1)
  End If

  If Body <> "" Then Body = Body & vbNewLine & vbNewLine
  Select Case MailSystem
  Case OUTLOOK
    Set msg = ol.CreateItem(0)
    With msg
      .To = QualifyAddress(SendTo)
      .Subject = Trim$(Subject)
      .Body = Body

      For Each v In Split(FileName, ",")
        If fso.FileExists(CStr(v)) Then
          .Body = .Body & CStr(v) & vbNewLine
          fnum = FreeFile(1)
          Open CStr(v) For Input As #fnum
          Line Input #fnum, Line
          Do While Not EOF(fnum)
            .Body = .Body & Line & vbNewLine
            Line Input #fnum, Line
          Loop
          Close #fnum
        End If
      Next v
      .send
      SendFileAsBody = True
    End With

  Case CDONTS
    SendFileAsBody = SendCDONTS(SendTo, Subject, Body, FileName)

  Case CDOSYS
    Set msg = CreateObject("CDO.Message")
    With msg
      Set .Configuration = CreateCDOConfig()
      .To = QualifyAddress(SendTo)
      .From = SentFrom
      .Subject = Trim$(Subject)
      .textBody = Body
      For Each v In Split(FileName, ",")
        If fso.FileExists(CStr(v)) Then
          .textBody = .textBody & CStr(v) & vbNewLine
          fnum = FreeFile(1)
          Open CStr(v) For Input As #fnum
          Line Input #fnum, Line
          Do While Not EOF(fnum)
            .textBody = .textBody & Line & vbNewLine
            Line Input #fnum, Line
          Loop
          Close #fnum
        End If
      Next v
      .send
      SendFileAsBody = True
    End With
  End Select

NotSent:
  Set msg = Nothing
End Function

Private Function QualifyAddress(SendTo As String) As String
  Dim v As Variant
  Dim newaddr As String
  Dim delim As String

  QualifyAddress = ""
  If InStr(SendTo, ";") > 0 Then delim = ";" Else delim = ","
  For Each v In Split(SendTo, delim)
    newaddr = Trim(v)
    If newaddr <> "" Then
      If InStr(newaddr, "@") = 0 Then newaddr = newaddr & "@mydomain.com"
      If QualifyAddress <> "" Then QualifyAddress = QualifyAddress & ";"
      QualifyAddress = QualifyAddress & newaddr
    End If
  Next v
End Function

Private Function SendCDONTS(SendTo As String, Optional Subject As String =
"", Optional Body As String = "", Optional Attachement As String = "") As
Boolean
  Dim msg As Object
  Dim v As Variant
  On Error GoTo noCDONTS
  SendCDONTS = False
  Set msg = CreateObject("CDONTS.NewMail")
  With msg
    .From = QualifyAddress(os.UserName)
    .To = QualifyAddress(SendTo)
    .Subject = Trim$(Subject)
    .Body = Body
    For Each v In Split(Attachement, ",")
      If fso.FileExists(CStr(v)) Then .AttachFile CStr(v)
    Next v
    .send
  End With
  Set msg = Nothing
  SendCDONTS = True
noCDONTS:
End Function
=====================================


Show quoteHide quote

Show quote Hide quote I don't think YOU should be writing ANY software used in a critical
situation.

As for the SMTP FREE component that I pointed out, what sits inside is
all the code necessary that you DO know is needed but don't want to write
on your own. That's what a component is for.

And as far as your concern about this computer being connected to the
internet, do you realize that Outlook is probably THE WORST and MOST
INSECURE e-mail client out there ?

If someone asked me to do this, I surely would not automate OL to do it.
For what you want to do, Outlook will fail 100 times before a _PROPERLY_
written program using a raw API, a winsock class, or the winsock control
itself fails.

Looking back at one of your posts...."Corporate users are tied to MS
applications and I am targeting corporate users."....I think you are
targeting one corporate user. Someone asked you if you can do this and
you said yes.

I'm actually in the 'remote data' field, and deal with a lot of utility,
SCADA, and GPS applications of product. My company (www.simrex.com) would
never hire an amateur to author any 'critical' piece of s/w. We have a
company we hire that writes code for us for embedded processors, and we
pay a pretty penny for a couple decades of experience because we know
that while it may be fairly expensive, it will be done, AND TESTED,
properly.



Show quoteHide quote

On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 18:02:22 -0600, DanS
<t.h.i.s.n.t.h.a.t@a.d.e.l.p.h.i.a..n.e.t> wrote:

<snip>

I used to work for a London SW House
- we used a very professional and respected supplier to write ASM
utilitities that were (at the time) beyond our ability

Around 1987 a few of us got heavily into ASM and the guts of MSDOS, we
were shocked to find that the respected supplier had made assumptions
that had unpleasant side effects
- one example was allocating 5kb of Data Segment as a static buffer
for an absolute disk read to check whether a drive was ready
- 5kb of lost DSEG was a heavy price, DSEG was only 64kb, and would
have been lethal if we had run into an exotic drive with (say) an 8 kb
sector size

We also found a bug in the decompression library of Zip object files
that we bought in from PKWARE

And there was the TSR library from a specialist house in the USA that
would not work reliably under Win 3.1 - yet we got TSRs working
solidly in an OS/2 DOS Box and under Win 3.1 - by going back to the
examples provided by Ray Duncan in the MSDOS Encyclopaedia

Oh yes, and the RAM Card Device Drivers that came from the hardware
supplier - flaky as heck, yet our in-house replacements were rock
solid

As a result, I too am very wary of using 3rd party stuff

Jack would be wise to look for an alternative to direct Email
Some ISPs provide a service where you submit a Form with special
parameters in the POST section and they punt it on as an Email

Here is a sample (more follows) :-

<FORM method=POST action="http://www.u-net.com/script/formmail.pl">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" name="recipient" value="ourem***@oursite.co.uk">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" name="subject" value="XXXX Study Order">

<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN"
             NAME="redirect"
             VALUE="http://www.oursitename.com/am-oconf.htm">


<PRE>   Report Number                Title
<BR>1.<INPUT TYPE=TEXT SIZE=50 NAME="line1">($100)
<BR>2.<INPUT TYPE=TEXT SIZE=50 NAME="line2">($50)
<BR>3.<INPUT TYPE=TEXT SIZE=50 NAME="line3">($50)
<BR>4.<INPUT TYPE=TEXT SIZE=50 NAME="line4">($50)
<BR>5.<INPUT TYPE=TEXT SIZE=50 NAME="line5">($50)
blah ...
<BR><INPUT TYPE="submit" VALUE="Submit Order to XXX">
</FORM>

As you can see it is just a Form that is submitted to a Perl script
which sends the Email and returns an optional page,  probably pretty
generic
I suspect that one could send it using the InternetOpenUrl API and
definitely, if one wants to, using raw Winsock.

erew***@nowhere.uk (J French) wrote in news:43df4907.263352927
@news.btopenworld.com:

Show quoteHide quoteAlthough this may sound rude, it is not intended to be.

I find little, if any, correlation between your experience in ASM and
TSR's under DOS, Windows 3.1 and OS/2 back in the 80's, to needing to
reliably send an e-mail from a Windows computer in 2006.

If it was a s/w house you worked at, I would assume that you were farming
out these ASM jobs that someone had given to your firm to a 3rd party.
Making another assumption (which is probably wrong) that these jobs were
meant for the first companies hardware. A lot of details can be lost like
this, especially if the 3rd party doesn't have the hardware or doesn't
understand fully how the hardware works or how it is intended to be used.

I've been through all of this already. Which incidentally is how we ended
up with our current s/w house.

On Tue, 31 Jan 2006 18:14:16 -0600, DanS
<t.h.i.s.n.t.h.a.t@a.d.e.l.p.h.i.a..n.e.t> wrote:

<snip>

<g>

Supposed expert SW Houses
- all highly respected
- yet the code contained problems

Actually the TSR stuff was for background communication, very similar
to an Email system

It certainly was a S/W House, the ASM jobs were things that we
integrated into our own software which we supplied to about 200
banks/institutions worldwide

No, the hardware problem I mentioned involved software written by the
hardware house

In our case we were quite a young house (about 3 years) and had some
skill gaps, also we were shipping product like crazy, so buying in
seemed sensible

We found that it was infinitely better to develop such things
ourselves
- incidentally I've found bugs in well established mass market
products

Hence I appreciate Jack's position

Jack wrote:
Show quoteHide quoteI realise that this thread has been done to death already, but I thought I
might bring up a point that I am suprised that noone else has.

To answer your last question, yes, it /should/ be complicated.  I don't want
any application sending email, or indeed any form of communication across
the internet, without my knowledge and approval.  You want to send an email,
you make sure that it is brought to my attention as to what you are doing,
and you let me see the contents of the email prior to it being sent, and you
allow me to cancel the send if I so wish.

If I found any application on my machine that sent email without my
knowledge, then it would be removed.  There is a good reason why Outlook
warns about the email sending, and it was brought to light in a big way with
the "ILoveYou" virus...

It's not complicated and it doesn't need third party DLLs. However, you will
have to give up your idea of using Outlook [Express].

Just code straight to CDOSYS. Details are in the MSDN library.

Show quoteHide quote

VB 2005 Express..NOT OT...really!
File Copy Without Win Buffering
Stumped -- trying to update a VBA subroutine for VB.net
Array Nomenclature
Problem with NOT
Ascertain number of fields in a user defined type
Help - What is the best approach?
Short file names
VBA stealing keys from ActiveX control?
make vb6 exe run only on specified computer?...