Access to remotely located components for developing programs is provided
with an interface that is launched from directly within an Integrated
Development Environment (IDE). The interface is configured to access one
or more desired component repositories through a web service. A
programmer can use the interface to query the component repositories for
one or more desired components. The interface can also provide additional
information that is known about the identified components, as obtained
from the web service hosting the component repositories. Once the one or
more desired components are identified, the interface can also be used to
download and install the components directly into the component toolboxes
of the IDE for immediate use. The components may include various files
that are contained in a modified dynamic loadable library (DLL) file
format or another format that allows the files to be authenticated.