IUnknown::Release

[This is preliminary documentation and subject to change.]

Decrements the reference count for the calling interface on an object. If the reference count on the object falls to zero, the object is freed from memory.

This method is fully documented in the COM documentation in the Microsoft® Platform SDK and is only partially documented here for quick reference.

ULONG Release(void);
 

Parameters

None

Return Values

Returns the resulting value of the reference count, which is used for diagnostic/testing purposes only. If you need to know that resources have been freed, use an interface with higher level semantics.