Thank you for the links!
> A common use of COM was scripting with Visual Basic in the 1990s ...
This sounds nifty!
> A common use of COM was scripting with Visual Basic in the 1990s ...
This sounds nifty!
Want to integrate Windows Explorer in your application? COM.
Custom property pages in Windows Explorer? COM.
Custom folder view ala zip folder? COM.
Want Windows Explorer to be able to extract metadata from your custom file format, or Windows Search to search it? COM.
Want to play or manipulate video using the installed codecs? COM.
Want users to be able to drag an attachment from Outlook and drop it into your custom application? COM.
Just some examples. COM is a bit clunky, but it's a great enabler on the desktop.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/shell/intro
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/properties/pr...
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/directshow/di...
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/shell/dragdro...
Want to play video games? DirectX is a COM API too.