exe can't find dll in the same directory

[David Thielen]

Hi;

When I install our program and we go to run it, it gives the Windows
program hit an error message. When we click Debug it says it can't
find a dll it needs.

The dll is strongly named (and matches the version & SN signature
shown in the debugger). It is not in the GAC - it is in the same
directory as the .exe program.

What is going on?

thanks - dave

david@at-at-at@windward.dot.dot.net
Windward Reports -- http://www.WindwardReports.com
me -- http://dave.thielen.com

Cubicle Wars - http://www.windwardreports.com/film.htm

[Hongye Sun [MSFT]]

Hello Dave,

Thanks for your post.

This issue is very weird because application execution folder will always
be searched if no DLL found before. In order to deep into the problem, I am
going to introduce a powerful tool Fuslogvw.exe to troubleshoot this issue.

Following are the detailed steps:
1. Open VS command prompt and type "Fuslogvw.exe".
2. In "Assembly Binding Log Viewer" window, click "Delete All" if the
button is enabled.
3. Reproduce the error by running your application.
4. Go back to the viewer window, click "Refresh".
5. Now you will see all the binding logs in the list view, and you can open
each item to view details.
6. Find the failed to load DLL by search the Description column.
7. Open it and copy its log details information here.

If there is no log in the list view, please go to registry and set the
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion\ForceLog registry value to 1 (the value is a
DWORD) to force it to log all bindings.

We will do the further troubleshooting based on the result of the tool.

For your convenience, here are the official documents:
Assembly Binding Log Viewer (Fuslogvw.exe)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e74a18c4.aspx

Thanks in advance for you cooperation. Have a nice day.

Regards,
Hongye Sun (hon...@online.microsoft.com, remove 'online.')
Microsoft Online Community Support

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
msd...@microsoft.com.

[Phil Wilson]

Are you that other Dll has no dependencies that might be missing?

--
Phil Wilson
Definitive Guide to Windows Installer
http://www.apress.com/book/view/1590592972

"David Thielen" <thi...@nospam.nospam> wrote in message
news:spsbi41i69f6f51ma...@4ax.com...

[Hongye Sun [MSFT]]

Hi Dave,

I have not heard from you for several days. Have you tried our
troubleshooting steps? I am writing to follow up this issue and its status.
Do you mind letting us know your progress on this issue. We will be more
than happy to help you.

Regards,
Hongye Sun (hon...@online.microsoft.com, remove 'online.')
Microsoft Online Community Support

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
msd...@microsoft.com.
 

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

[David Thielen]

Sorry yes we got it working. It turned out to be an obfuscation
problem (very weird).

thanks - dave

[Hongye Sun [MSFT]]

Thanks for your reply, Dave.

I am glad that your problem has been fixed. It is also weird to me that
obfuscation can cause such kind of problem. If you still want to dig into
this issue, please give us more information about how you use obfuscation.
We will try our best to help you. Thanks.

[David Thielen]

The problem was that the message was it couldn't load the DLL, but the
reason it didn't load the DLL was not that it wasn't there, but that
the class it needed was not in it - because it had been obfuscated. If
the message had been "loaded filename.dll but the class abc is not in
it" - we would have then known what was going on right away.

thanks - dave

On Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:26:55 GMT, hon...@online.microsoft.com

("Hongye Sun [MSFT]") wrote:

[Hongye Sun [MSFT]]

Thanks for your feedback, Dave.

I would like to forward your message to proper channel.

In order to verify this issue, we did a quick test by creating one EXE and
use a type in one DLL. Then I changed DLL's type's name and copy the new
DLL to reply the original one in EXE's folder. Run the EXE file. However,
we was unable to reproduce the error. The error message always shows us one
type is not found in DLL. There must be something different with yours in
our test.

Can you tell us how you reference the dll and use the type? Thanks,