Question

I have a C# project that I have created in Visual Studio Express 2010. This program uses a 3rd party C# class that relies on/calls a C++ dll. I just copied the filename.dll into the bin/debug and bin/release folders of the project folder, and the application ran fine.

I am under the assumption that I can copy the release executable for the project to another computer and run it as long as the filename.dll is in the same directory as the executable. However, trying this on another computer with correct frameworks installed, etc. the program crashes with a system.dllnotfoundexception.

Strangely, my friend reports that the program runs on his computer with Visual Studio installed, but not the one without, though I have not actually seen this.

What could be causing this? And how can I get the release executable to run on another machine?

Thanks for any replies!
-Chase

Answer 1

If your c++ dll is build by visual studio it may depends on the CRT, two things to check here :

• If it depends on the release or debug CRT. Microsoft don’t give you the right to distribute the debug version except for debugging purposes so it could be a problem.
• Witch version it depends on
  • The last version from vs2010 could be copied in the same directory as the executable (msvcp100.dll for c++ msvcr100.dll for C)
  • Previous versions needed to be installed as side-by-side assemblies so running their setup was mandatory (Some versions like the VS2005 one are included in framework install but others like the VS2005 SP1 one need to be installed separately)

In any case the best way to debug such problems is to install Dependency Walker (free) on the computer having problems and let it tell you what dll is missing.