>It seems that the package and deployment tool is not handling some of my dll's very well. esp those ole automation files. How can I make the P&D tool avoid access denied errors when trying to install some of these dll's. [insert personal pity party here]
>I have installshield but I still have to jump through hoops for it too. Is there a way that I can write an install that will do a copy BEFORE windows gets it digital mitts into the dlls I want to replace? Is there a nice clean way to give installshield my dependency file and have it make a nice install or package for the web that will overwrite if version is newer ... Minimal or no questions to the users.
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>I am so fed up with this dll hell...

Which DLLs? By «esp those ole automation files» do you mean Word, Excel and so on? If so, you can't distribute these requirements with your application. It must already be installed on the client computer's.