How to run dll file c. How to install a DLL file on Windows and register it? Software and hardware requirements

It often happens that some program does not want to run, because... You are missing a certain DLL file on your computer. What to do in this case? You need to download and install this file. There are usually no problems downloading a DLL file from the Internet, but how to install it?

The first way to install a DLL file:
The easiest way is to simply place the dll file you downloaded in the folder with the program you are trying to run. This method is very simple, but does not always work.

The second way to install a DLL file:
The second method is to place the downloaded dll file in the system folders of your operating system. First, you need to find out what operating system you have. To do this, right-click on the “My Computer” icon on the desktop and go to “Properties”. The type of your operating system will be indicated there:

If you have a 32-bit operating system, then:

Open My Computer.
Go to the "Windows" folder.
Find the "System32" folder there and place the downloaded DLL file in it.

If you have a 64-bit operating system, then:

Open My Computer.
Open your system drive (usually drive "C").
Go to the "Windows" folder.
Find the "SysWOW64" folder there and place the downloaded DLL file in it.
Restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

The third way to install a DLL file:
The third method is used if you installed the dll file using the second method, but you still get an error. You need to manually indicate to the system that you installed the dll file. For this:

Go to the Start menu.
Enter "cmd" in the search bar. And open the found program.
In the window that opens, enter " regsvr32 dll_file_name.dll". (for example, like this: "regsvr32 test.dll")
Restart your computer.

A DLL file is a component of a dynamic link library whose elements are used by almost all programs. The DLL files are located in the system root folder. The components must all be present, digitally signed, work correctly and be up to date with the version. If one of the requirements is not met, the user will receive an informational notification when starting the program: DLL error. The malfunction indicates that the DLL file is missing, damaged, or outdated.

How to install a DLL file

In order for programs, applications and games to start working again, you must manually install the missing library components. Simply placing a file in a folder is not enough ─ you need to know how to register them.

Placing and registering library files

Before installing a DLL file on Windows 7,8,10, you need to download them, and exactly for the system bit depth.

Let's determine what bit capacity your system has (if you know for sure, you can skip this step)

Step 1. Right-click on “My Computer” and select “Properties”

Step 2. In the window that opens, we can read the properties of the computer, the version of the operating system and its bit depth 32 (x86) or 64 bit. In our case, we have a 64-bit Windows 10 operating system.

Step 3. After downloading the files, they need to be placed in the root folder and registered

for x32 (x86) systems, the component must be replaced or placed in the C:\Windows\System32 folder;

for x64 you need to replace it or move it to the folder C:\Windows\SysWOW64;

Step 4. The file must be registered in the system.

You can do this by opening the command line with the combination “Win” + “R”, or clicking “Start” and “Run”;

in the window that opens, enter the following, separated by a space: regsvr32 file name.dll – where “regsvr32” is the command for registration, and “file name.dll” is the full name of the inserted component;

or you can specify the file location manually - regsvr32.exe + file path

Step 5. Click "OK" and restart your computer for the new settings to take effect.

I would like to note right away that errors may occur during registration. For example: "Failed to load module." They usually occur for 3 reasons

The path to the file is incorrect, or the file was not moved to the System32 or SysWOW64 directory
Not all DLL files need to be registered at all; sometimes it is enough to simply copy them to the System32 or SysWOW64 directory or place them in the root of the problematic game or program
The files have already been registered before

Second registration method

Step 1. You can register the file using a command line, which must be run as an administrator.

Step 2. Writing a command regsvr32.exe + file path and press "Enter"

Step 3. A message will appear saying “Everything went well”, and just restart the computer

That's all, the file is registered, you can try to launch your game or program

Here are some tips that may be useful to you.

Place items only in the specified folder (it may be hidden by default). You need to uncheck “Do not show hidden folders” in the display settings.
If administrator permission is required when replacing a file, confirm the action.
Select only the files that are relevant at the time of downloading and save them to your computer separately. They may still be useful to you. If the problem occurs again, you will quickly restore system functionality.

After installing various programs or games, you may encounter a situation where, when you turn it on, the error “The program cannot be launched because the required DLL is not in the system” appears. Despite the fact that Windows operating systems usually register libraries in the background, after you download and place your DLL file in the appropriate location, the error still occurs and the system simply does not “see” it. To fix this, you need to register the library. How this can be done will be discussed later in this article.

There are several methods to resolve this problem. Let's look at each of them in more detail.

Method 1: OCX/DLL Manager

OCX/DLL Manager is a small program that can help you register a library or OCX file.

To do this you will need:

Click on the menu item "Register OCX/DLL".
Select the file type that you will register.
Using the button "Browse" specify the location of the DLL.
Click the button "Register" and the program itself will register the file.

OCX/DLL Manager can also unregister a library; to do this, select the item in the menu "Unregister OCX/DLL" and subsequently perform all the same operations as in the first case. You may need the undo function to compare results when a file is activated and when it is disabled, as well as during the process of removing some computer viruses.

During the registration process, the system may give you an error indicating that administrator rights are required. In this case, you need to launch the program by right-clicking on it and select "Run as administrator".

Method 2: Run Menu

You can register the DLL using the command "Run" in the start menu of the Windows operating system. To do this you will need to do the following:

Method 3: Command Line

Registering a file via the command line is not much different from the second option:

Select a team "Run" on the menu "Start".
Enter in the input field that opens cmd.
Click "Enter".

A window will appear in front of you in which you will need to enter the same commands as in the second option.

It should be noted that the command line window has a function for pasting copied text (for convenience). You can find this menu by right-clicking on the icon in the upper left corner.

Method 4: Open with

Possible mistakes

"The file is not compatible with the installed version of Windows"- this means that you are most likely trying to register a 64-bit DLL on a 32-bit system or vice versa. Use the appropriate command described in the second method.

"Entry point not found"- not all DLLs can be registered; some of them simply do not support the DllRegisterServer command. Also, an error may occur because the file has already been registered by the system. There are sites that distribute files that are not actually libraries. In this case, of course, nothing will be registered.

In conclusion, it must be said that the essence of all the proposed options is the same - these are just different methods for launching the registration command - whichever is more convenient for you.

Running a DLL does not raise absolutely any questions or problems if you are an experienced programmer and solve such issues every day, sitting at your work computer and creating the next masterpiece of computer games. You might even be surprised that such a lame topic became the subject of an entire article. However, if you are not a programmer, have not studied for 6 years at the Faculty of Applied Mathematics, and are not the author of cool computer games, then launching a DLL may be a non-trivial task for you, and this unresolved issue can easily deprive you of the opportunity to play your favorite computer game.

It is for this reason that I propose to carefully analyze the launch of DLLs in different versions of Windows, so that it does not arise and you do not have to rack your brains for ages about how to get rid of it.

DLL error when launching games

DLL error when launching games is the most common and most annoying phenomenon that occurs when the DLL does not start and our system reports an error. But let's look directly at the process of calling the DLL itself. A programmer, when designing a computer game, can turn to a third-party DLL just for the sake of a tiny function, which for some reason he does not want to implement on his own, but prefers to use a ready-made option. For example, the screenshot below shows the source code of one game, where an external DLL library is called.

In the case of this piece of code, we can state that the launch of the DLL was successful, but this does not always happen, because usually the necessary libraries are called during startup, when the game loads all the components necessary for operation into the computer’s RAM. And this is where a variety of factors can interfere with the launch of a DLL.

There are times when a computer game wants to call a function located in a third-party DLL. Everything was happening wonderfully, for a long time, but suddenly the launch did not happen and an annoying window with an error message began to appear on the screen. We began to repeat the launch of the DLL and investigate the error. It turned out that the library developer simply removed this function from the DLL source code and did not bother to include this item in the documentation. The game programmers had to urgently release a patch and update the source code of their product so that gamers could continue to play normally. Or consider another example.

Here we see that the game displays a DLL error message, which is due to the fact that it cannot find the required . ? Yes, very simple! First, it’s worth checking whether the system really has the DLL we need. If there is one, then most likely it is damaged and the game cannot launch the DLL. In this case, it would be advisable to register it in the system. We have already written how to do this, but let’s cover this point again. You need to run the regsvr32 command on the command line, which is responsible for registering or unregistering DLLs in the system.

After the registration process is completed, the game should automatically launch the DLL during its loading and, if the file meets all the game requirements (version, bitness), you will be able to enjoy the gameplay. However, we cannot call this method of launching DLLs optimal because It is unlikely that you will be able to find exactly the version of the exact library that you need. It is much safer to download the latest version of the software or game that includes this DLL file. Reinstall the entire software product along with this library. Reboot and run the DLL again.