DLL's, Dynamic Link Libraries, form the core of most windows applications. They give added functionality and many are used by multiple applications. Because there are so many in Windows(95 or 98), identifiying which ones belong to which applications, or which are not needed, can be a challenge. This creates a problem when an application stops functioning and does not give an error message to let you know which DLL it is missing. The following are a couple of useful tips and tools relating to DLL's.

Identifying Loading Problems
If you believe that an application is missing certain DLL's it requires you should give Show Dependencies a try. Once you have selected the executable you would like it to open, it will display a list of DLL's that it requires to run. Also, if you open a DLL with it then you will be shown information on that DLL as well as any DLL it may require.

Further Identifying Loading Problems
If you find that when loading one of your applications it regularly crashes or gives error messages you might need to check what it needs to load properly. Two handy tools for this are Registry Monitor and File Monitor. They both display a continually updating list of processes that run on your machine.

Listing Currently Loaded DLL's
In case you need to bring up a list of DLL's that are currently loaded in your system you should check out DLL Show. It also gives extra information on those DLL's, such as: date modified, size, path, and number of files referencing it.

Repairing Corrupted System DLL's
In the rare situation that one or more of your main system DLL's(like winsock.dll) gets deleted or becomes corrupted, you may need to restore the DLL's to their original state when Windows was installed. This should only be done as a last resort. Back up your C:\Windows folder and its subfolders, then rerun Win 95's Setup program (SETUP.EXE). When it prompts you to "Restore Windows files that are changed or corrupted," simply click on OK.

Safely Removing Un-needed DLL's
This may sound like an impossible task considering all the DLL's and the programs that might need them, but there are some great tools to help out. My favourite is Clean Sys, because it's free. It will build a list of DLL's on your drive and then search all the executables to see which DLL's are no longer needed. You can then move them out of the system directory until you are sure they are no longer needed.

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