The uninstallation of files does not always seem to work as intended on Windows XP, it is no secret that the system folder grows over time. If you delete a program directory by hand for example all dll files in the system directory remain where they are. There is also the case where you want to uninstall a program and a window pops up asking wether you want to delete a driver which could be used by other programs as well.
DLL Archive is able to clear this mess. The freeware scans and verifies all dll files on your system and adds them to a list of dlls that are most likely obsolete. Most likely means that there is of course a chance that this dll is still needed and for this purpose DLL Archive archives the dlls which means that they are moved from the system dirs to an archive dir (DLLArchive in the windows folder). You have to work with your computer as usual at this point, reboot it for instance and see if everything is still working as intended.
If you receive errors you should move the dll that is mentioned back to the system directory. I performed a scan and it found more than 450 dll files. I decided to archive them all and see what would happen. Well, nothing happened at all. I was able to reboot my computer, start my programs as usual without problems at all.
The size of the DLLArchive folder was 196 megabytes, this is huge if you ask me. I suggest you keep those files at least for a week and see if any error pops up at a later time. If not appears delete them or back them up before you do.
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Hey thanx a lot this tool helps me a lot bcoz I install and uninstall a lot of program which leave away their dll files.
My Dll Archive folder wound up pretty big as well.
I don’t know about the rest of you folks, but this thing was nothing but a nightmare for me. It has a tendency to archive dll’s that are vital to the OS and despite Analogx’s claims to the contrary, it does NOT fully restore those dll’s that have been archived.
Well as I said it did archive 197 MB of dlls and that was 3 days ago. All the programs that I have been using since then have been working as always.
No problems at all. All dlls are moved to a folder and you can easily move them back to the dir where they belong.
Not sure what went wrong there Adrift.
well i first noticed a problem when i tried to access System Information from the start menu. I would get an error that read “marscore.dll not found”. This same file is used in various other applications as well. The restore function in Dll Archive only restored about 80% of the dll’s in the archive, the rest just sat there and refused restoration. It took a bit of trouble shooting, but it wasn’t till i re-downloaded .Net Framework version 2.0 that i was able to resolve the problem. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who ran into this problem as you can read from ask-leo.com and http://www.snapfiles.com . Anyways, other than this small problem I love the info you present on this website Martin.
There is (for me at least) no way whatsoever to get back my archived files. Unless you are 110% damn sure about what you are doing, stay clear of this program!
used to have an older free prog til my house burned down.
would scan your system for old tucked-away drivers that you don’t need anymore, anyone PLEASE know where I can find another prog like this?
Can’t remember the name and would be DEEPLY appreciated!