Note that we are actually using the linker to *generate* the manifest
(something linkers pre VC2005 couldn't do), so if we could tell the
linker to skip that manifest generation and embed it directly in the
DLL, it would certainly be easier.  But, IIRC (which I may not), you can
embed a manifest directly via the linker by converting the manifest to a
resource and linking that - however, that conversion still requires an
extra tool.  This is the alternative process outlined on the MS page I
linked to.  And finally, it seems Visual Studio itself embeds the
resource this way.

So if there is a way to embed the manifest without an additional step, I
don't know about it :)