[issue5019] Specifying common controls DLL in manifest

[Robin Dunn]

New submission from Robin Dunn <robin at alldunn.com>:

This may have already been discussed but my searches didn't turn up
anything concrete other than issue 4120 which is a similar but different
problem.  The problem I'm facing is that wxPython requires that version
6 of the common controls DLL be loaded in order for the GUI applications
to use the themed version of the widgets on XP+ platforms, but it
appears that this can only be done reliably if the manifest for the .exe
is the one that specifies that version of the common controls assembly.

Prior to 2.6 I was able to install python[w].exe.manifest files next to
the python executables from my installer and it would work fine, but now
that Python 2.6 is built with MSVC9 and it has its own manifest that
does not always work.  Initial testing seems to indicate that using an
external manifest still works ok on 32-bit platforms, but not on the
64-bit versions of Windows.  

I've tried ensuring that the wxPython .pyd's and the wxWidgets DLLs have
an internal manifest that specifies the common controls assembly but
that has not helped.  The only thing I've been able to find that works
for both 32 and 64 bit is to replace the internal manifest in python.exe
with a new one that specifies both the CRT and the Common Controls
assemblies, but that is obviously a Bad Thing for the install of an
extension module to do, so I'm opening this issue to look for alternatives.

So, does anybody have any experience or ideas on how to enable the
wxPython extensions to load the new common controls assembly without
needing to change the stock Python executables' manifest?  If not, are
there any objections to adding the common controls assembly to the stock
manifest used for python.exe and pythonw.exe?

----------
components: Build, Windows
messages: 80308
nosy: robind
severity: normal
status: open
title: Specifying common controls DLL in manifest
type: behavior
versions: Python 2.6

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue5019>
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