I'm currently developing a program that uses two external libraries - OpenSSL and SDL2 - and I'm still a little wet behind the ears when it comes to software development. I'm planning on having my app run on both Windows and Mac and I am wondering about the process behind the installation of external dependencies on another machine.
First of all, when I come to deploy my application in Visual Studio, will Visual Studio export those external dependencies/libraries to the output release folder along with my application? If not, how do I have my application install those dependencies on another machine?
Secondly, is it best to build those libraries within, or adjacent to, my project folders, or can they be anywhere on my computer and I just point Visual Studio to them and Visual Studio does the rest?
Any relevant documentation would be greatly appreciated.
I suggest that you could use two tools: depends.exe/ProcessExplorer and InstallShield.
depends.exe/ProcessExplorer is used to check the dll and lib used. InstallShield is used to deploy .exe.
For example:
In ProcessExplorer, you can see the third-party libraries needed for the program PointCloudUI2.0.exe to run.
Then, you could add the corresponding directories and files in the Application Files, this can add the corresponding dependent DLL.
Also, you could refer to Microsoft Docs for more informantion.
Related
I am developing a Windows C++ utility using MFC Framework in Visual Studio 6.0(Need to have this combination because of some internal requirements).
My utility installs some softwares, and then configure them from registry. Hence I need to bundle the dependent installer files along with my executable. How can I bundle them all together, so that we can provide an executable to our users which will include all required installer files along with the utility.
PS: I am new to Visual Studio Development environment.
If you just want to create an installer use something like InnoSetup to create a single EXE that can deploy multiple files.
How to remove msvc dlls (example: msvcr100.dll) dependency to run qt appliation?
I've developed a qt application which runs just fine in dveloper machine but unable to run on any other machine gives error message "program can't start because MSVCR100.dll is missing from your computer". I can solve this error by copying that file in the application folder but I dont want to copy, instead I want to link statically or some other way to remove that dependency.
Thanks in advance
The issue is that you are probably trying to run an application on a machine which has a different Visual Studio (MSVC) version installed than the version that was used for building your application itself.
Generally, the correct solution is to install the corresponding Visual Studio redistributable package on the target machine. It is not a "workaround" or "hack" because if you wish to use an application built with different runtime libraries, etc, then it is expected. Here you can read a bit more about it:
Redistributing Visual C++ Files
Yes, it is a bit unfortunate, and apparently MS has not managed to make it the most ideal, but after all, it is simple enough to circumvent. Note that the target machine would not only have issues with your application, but in general with any distributed in a similar fashion.
The other way to solve the issue is to build the application with the same environment that is installed on the target machine, but this can easily go haywire if you need to supply the application to several machines with versatile setup. Now, I would say this is the "hackish" approach.
You will need to grab the redistributable for this particular problem from here:
Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x86)
Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x64)
Even if you went down for statically hacking this around somehow, you would need to deal with nasty consequences when using your application with DLLs and static libraries, etc.
As far as I know, you can't link statically to Visual Studio Redistributable. Any application built with Visual Studio Compiler needs the corresponding msvcXXX.dll to run. Installers containing all dll for each specific version of MSVC are available here: http://search.microsoft.com/en-us/DownloadResults.aspx?q=redistributable
If you want avoid errors for your users when you distribute your application, you have some solution. A commonly used is to install the right redistributable package before installing your application on the user machine. Often used tools (NSIS, Inno Setup, etc.) have options to run other executable in the process. And each Microsoft redist package can be run silently (without any window display to user).
Note: This problem is absolutely not related to qt. It comes directly from the compiler you choose.
I am using visual studio 2013 with ISLE 2013 to create a windows form application,
it is the first time i use this style,
I successfully built the application but the problem comes after i setup the application on another PC is says msvcp120.dll is missing!
I have searched the web for this problem and I could not find anything?
any ideas?
I am not a windows guy but I will try to answer, as I did some small research. I found information here. It says:
"This file is the dynamic linking library designed as a Microsoft C Runtime Library, usually comming with Microsoft® Visual Studio®. It is a collection of link libraries that contains instructions for the standard C library functions. It is used by almost all Windows programs compiled from C or C++ source code. This library is used for the applications written under Visual Studio."
So, I am guessing it is a microsoft thing. A runtime library that is required to run c/c++ projects built with visual studios. Download the .dll from a source online (just google) and include it into your project directory. If it helps, include that file in your installation file.
Until anybody who is working with windows and has any idea about that dll answers you question, this answer can help you to get started.
found the solution I should add the Visual C++ runtime library installer
Don't download single DLL's from which you know hardly anything from random sites.
From your Visual Studio 2013 installation directory, check C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\VC\redist\1033 and you'll see vcredist_x64.exe and vcredist_x86.exe files that need to be run on your target system.
Use the x64 variant for 64 bit apps. It will install MSVCP120.dll for one, and some other DLL's as well.
Msvcp120.dll is the dll for standard c++ library. When you develop an application using standard c++ in VS 2013, the application defaults to Msvcp120.dll(Msvcp110.dll in VS2012). The client computer should install Visual c++ 2013 Redistributable.
Some dependencies that are on your system because you have Visual Studio installed will not be on the target system. You will need to include them in your installer or install a redistributable package on the target machine.
As there are many options and listing them all here would be too much and also redundant, you may want to visit the Microsoft site for this task and read up on all those options before you decide which you chose.
You can download the .dll file from DLL Store and paste that file into the directory where you have installed the setup.
Hope it will help you.
i am trying to run an exe file on another computer that doesn't have visual studios installed.
When i try run the file i get the error : This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.
I tried searching for the answer and i lot of websites mention static link run-time assemblies
but i have no idea how to add them into my project.
(Program is in visual studios 2008 in c++ console)
It is hard to tell exactly what libraries are missing. Here are some ideas.
You are deploying a debug version. As non-development computers typically don't have debug libraries deployed (mfc*xxxd.dll & co.) your app cannot start. You should deploy the release version.
You app is built with newer version of C runtime or MFC which is not available on target machine. You should install Visual C++ redistributable package for your version of VS / development tools.
If you can't install this, you should statically link runtime/MFC libraries to your app. Depending on your version of VS, you need to go to project settings and check correct version of runtime libs (static vs dynamic)
If still there are issues, you should check exactly which dlls are missing by using a tool like Dependency Walker on the target machine (actually this should always be the first thing you should do instead of guessing). It will show you which dlls are missing. If everything seems OK, then you are missing some delay-loaded or COM dll - this are not loaded on startup but on demand. You can use DependencyWalker to profile the startup of the app to see exactly what's missing.
I created a client server application in C++ using Visual Studio.
Now I want to run the client EXE file on another computer (which doesn't have Visual Studio installed),
but when I try run the EXE file, it gives the following error message:
This application has failed to start because the application
configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this
problem.
How can I run the EXE file without installing anything on the computer?
Applications built with Visual Studio depend on Visual C++ Redistibutable (VCRedist). When the program is being linked dynamically, then your binaries will need
MSVCR**.dll (Microsoft C Runtime Library).
On MSDN, there is a nice article called Redistributing Visual C++ Files (for Visual Studio 2008), that states that there are Potential run-time errors in case that required Visual C++ library is not installed:
you may get one of the following error messages depending on the version of Windows on which you try to run your application:
The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135).
This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling application may fix this problem.
The system cannot execute the specified program.
Basically you have two options:
The simplest possible solution is to change the dynamic linking of runtime libraries to static linking. Go to project properties and under C/C++ → Code Generation you will find Runtime Library option. You need to change it from Multi-threaded DLL (/MD) to Multi-threaded (/MT).
Another possible solution is to make sure that the right version of Microsoft VC++ Redistributable Package is installed on the target machine.
But your application might depend on other DLL files as well. In case you want to find out what are the dependencies of your program, there is a great utility called Dependency Walker that will help you in this and many other situations :)
Background:
C++ applications need run-time assemblies (DLL files) to run in any Windows computer.
Normally these run-time assemblies are located at C:\Windows\Winsxs directory.
All the Windows operating systems by default comes with several run time assemblies.
But if your application is developed in a newer version of the run-time assembly environment, the target computer also needs the same version of the run time to exist there.
When you're installing Visual Studio, most newer versions of the run-time assemblies comes to your computer.
Solution:
Finally by anyway the target computer should have the exact run time assemblies. There are a few ways to do this (for more details search each in Google).
Statically link run-time assemblies with your application (troublesome for large application).
Install the C++ redistribution environment on the target computer (the easiest way).
Creating a setup project to deploy the run-time on the target computer when installing the application (not bad).
For deploying run-time assemblies as private assemblies (professional), see here for more details
Conditions:
You must not use .NET framework in your application.
You must not use the common language run-time support for your application
I deployed my program in release instead of debug, and the EXE file now works on the other computer.
I haven't seen that specific error before. Usually it's an error around a missing DLL (Windows redistributable). Assuming there isn't actually a problem with the configuration, you have two choices:
Change the compile mode from Multithreaded DLL to Multithreaded. This can be done from the C++ section of project properties under code generation. In multithreaded mode your binary will be statically linked against the Windows redistributable. This is probably what you want.
Install the Windows redistributable on the target machine. This probably isn't OK, because you state that you don't want to install anything on the target machine.
A warning about option 1: Different versions of Windows have different versions of the redistributable. It's possible to encounter a highly specialized environment in which a statically linked program will not behave as expected.
It look like you're missing some DLL files. Be sure to copy appropriate DLL files along with EXE file.
I am running Visual Studio 2019 and I found a very helpful configuration property to address the problem of moving a simple application to another computer without an installation package.
Open the project Property Pages.
Choose which configurations this change should apply to, I used “All Configurations”.
In the left-hand window click to expand the top node called “Configuration Properties”.
Click on "Advanced". In the right-hand window look for the property called “Copy C++ Runtime to OutDir” and set that to “yes”.
Click OK to close the Properties window.
Rebuild your project. All the necessary dlls will be copied to the project’s output directory. Copy your exe and all dlls to another computer. The exe should find everything it needs to run.