Applies to VB5 VB6

Type Library Viewer for Visual Basic

Screenshot

About the Type Library Viewer

The Type Library Viewer application is a cross between the API Viewer utility and the Object Browser window. It provides Visual Basic declarations for the constants, enumerations, procedures, and types that are declared in a type library.

Using the Type Library Viewer, you can:

Examine the contents of any type library on your system. Browse through all registered type libraries or open a specific file.
View the equivalent Const, Enum, Declare, or Type statement for every type library declaration. (Classes and interfaces are currently unsupported.)

If you downloaded the Windows API Type Library, you'll find the Type Library Viewer especially useful as a reference tool. In particular, you can:

Check whether a procedure argument is passed ByRef or ByVal.
Determine the actual format of a String variable: ANSI (LPSTR), Unicode (LPWSTR), or BSTR.

(These details don't show up in the Object Browser window, even though they're often important when you're working with the Windows API.)

Download

Two versions of the Type Library Viewer (tlibview.exe) are available:

Download the ANSI version (16KB, 44KB unzipped). The ANSI version will run on all recent versions of Windows; it has been tested with Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.
Download the Unicode version (15KB, 30KB unzipped). The Unicode version is optimized for Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, and Windows XP; it has been tested with Windows 2000 and Windows XP. This version will not run on Windows 95/98/Me.

To install the Type Library Viewer, extract tlibview.exe to a convenient location.

To uninstall the Type Library Viewer, delete tlibview.exe.

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