Component Object Model (COM) provides a platform-independent, distributed, object-oriented system for creating binary software components that can interact. COM is the foundation technology for Microsoft's OLE (compound documents) and ActiveX (Internet-enabled components) technologies, as well as other technologies. COM objects can be created with a variety of programming languages. Object-oriented languages, such as C++, provide programming mechanisms that simplify the implementation of COM objects. These objects can be within a single process, in other processes, or on remote machines. COM is a programming model and a set of APIs, and does not include a dedicated user interface.
This component has no configuration requirements.
COM is designed primarily for C++ and Microsoft Visual Basic developers. COM runs on a wide variety of operating systems.
For more information on COM, please visit this Microsoft Web site.