Book excerpt: Microsoft COM is prevalent throughout Windows operating systems 95, 98, NT-and is rapidly becoming the programming framework of choice. To build applications which interface with Windows systems, programmers must understand and learn to use COM. This book includes coverage of DCOM, Microsoft s distributed architecture that is based on COM. It will also covers the latest developments in Delphi 5. This book will teach COM programming to Delphi 4 and 5 programmers. After providing an understanding of the COM framework, it offers a practical exploration of COM to enable Delphi developers to program component-based applications. Typical real-world scenarios, such as Windows Shell programming, automating Microsoft Agent, and creating and using ActiveX controls, will be explored. Discussion of each topic will be illustrated with detailed examples.