Load a DLL from another directory at program start

Question

My basic issue is this: my program (MyProgram.exe) has a dependency on a DLL from another program (OtherProgram), and I\'m trying to avoid repackaging a new DLL every time Other

Answer 1

I have the same problem with one application I am working on.

I do not want to use runtime loading because there are tens of functions I would need to manually create function pointer for.

Mr Dibling's mention of manifest file opened a new door for me but I sadly found out that the oldest version of windows that supports the feature is Windows 7. It won't even work on Vista.

Long story short, a friend familiar with Windows Application development told me to look up Delay-Loaded DLL, which turns out to solve the problem perfectly with minimal effort. It delays the loading of DLL library to either the point you manually do, or the first time its function is called. So you just need to add your DLL path to the search path before that happens, where SetDllDirectory helps.

Here is the steps to make it work:

1) Specify the DLL to be delay-loaded to linker, either through your makefile, cmake or VS property page (Linker->Input of VS2015)

2) Call SetDllDirectory at the beginning of your program, before any call to the DLL is made.

Delay-loaded DLL is supported all the way back to VC6. SetDllDirectory is supported after XP SP1.