Fix the missing dll error message

Martin Brinkmann
Jul 13, 2007
Updated • Mar 23, 2012
Windows
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3

I think every Windows user experienced an error message like "Could not find xxx.dll" before and wondered what the hell happened with that dll. One reason could be that you used to uninstall a program that asked specifically whether you would like to remove the xxx.dll as well because it could still be needed by other applications.

I'm always not sure if I should remove such dll's especially when they are located in a Windows folder and not a program folder. The easiest way to fix a missing dll error is to simply locate the dll and copy it into the folder where the program is looking for it. One way to achieve this goal would be to search the Windows installation CD or DVD and search through the cab files.

Sometimes however, the dll was not included in the original installation CD or DVD which means that it could be a lot of work and trouble before you find it. Unless of course that you use a service like dll-downloads which provides a very extensive list of many dll's for all Microsoft Windows operating systems.

The dll files are sorted alphabetically by operating system, which means that it is pretty easy to locate the dll that you are looking for.

This method is not foolproof but it normally works pretty well. There could be cases however where a specific version of a dll is missing or a dll that was included for a different language is needed.

Update: I'd suggest you place the downloaded dll files into the program directory to see if it resolves the missing dll issue on the computer.

Another option are runtime libraries that you can install either individually from the developer website, or in an all-in move with the aid of the All-In-One Runtime Installer.

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Comments

  1. Chris said on July 14, 2007 at 2:06 pm
    Reply

    woops sorry i re-read this at sensible o clock now, i meant to say register the ocx’s – thats if they are ocx’s not dll’s like martin’s post :D

    Regs

    chris

  2. Chris said on July 13, 2007 at 7:23 pm
    Reply

    often you will have to ‘register’ the dll on your pc AFTER copying it to the system32 folder. You can do this simply by going to start > run…

    then typing

    regsvr32 FILENAMEHERE.ocx

    Regs

    Chris

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