Registration Free COM Interop: The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect

Background. I've got a COM Wrapper assembly called ComWrapper.dll written in C#, and Visual Basic 6 application called Project1.exe. I've added the Project1.exe.manifest file (contents of which are shown below), and I'm getting an error that says "the application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Here's my configuration.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
  <assemblyIdentity type="win32"
                    name="Project1.exe"
                    version="1.0.0.0"
                    processorArchitecture="x86" />
  <dependency>
    <dependentAssembly&g开发者_开发知识库t;
      <assemblyIdentity name="ComWrapper" version="1.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="msil"></assemblyIdentity>
      <clrClass clsid="{3ac3d04e-1f83-4a27-b516-95e38126685d}" progid="MyComObjectNamespace.myclass" threadingModel="Both" name="MyComObjectNamespace.myclass" runtimeVersion=""></clrClass>
      <file name="ComWrapper.dll" hashalg="SHA1"></file>
      <dependency>
        <dependentAssembly>
          <assemblyIdentity name="mscorlib" version="2.0.0.0" publicKeyToken="b77a5c561934e089"></assemblyIdentity>
        </dependentAssembly>
      </dependency>
    </dependentAssembly>
  </dependency>
</assembly>

Any help would be much appreciated.

You need to use sxstrace.exe to determine the actual cause of the error, as the (complete) error message text tells you to do. Here's what it is wrong:

INFO: Parsing Manifest File

C:\Temp\sxs\Project1.exe.Manifest.

INFO: Manifest Definition Identity is Project1.exe,processorArchitecture="x86",type="win32",version="1.0.0.0".

INFO: Reference: ComWrapper,processorArchitecture="msil",version="1.0.0.0"

ERROR: Line 9: The element clrClass appears as a child of element urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1^dependentAssembly which is not supported by this version of Windows.

The problem is that dependentAssembly element should not provide a complete description of the assembly - it's only used to indicate a reference. You have to provide a separate component manifest file for that assembly, which then describes exported COM classes via clrClass. This is described in more detail in this MSDN article.

This error could be due to a typo in the config file. Check your app.config file and look for typos.