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But if your application is developed in a newer version of the run-time assembly environment, the target computer also needs the same version of the run time to exist there.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.
Related
An old MFC application now rebuilt in Visual Studio 2015 Community which uses an old DLL, I'm trying (and tearing my hair) to determine exactly what runtime DLLs are required to properly run the application on machines which doesn't have VS installed.
Target OS is Windows 7. It's a 32 bit application.
The application uses a DLL MAuEASE_s.dll, which uses mfc80.dll and msvcr80.dll DLLs. I don't have the source code of MAuEASE_s.dll so I cannot rebuild/replace it.
On my development machine, the application runs fine with the following set of files put into the same folder:
main executable
MAuEASE_s.dll
mfc80.dll
msvcr80.dll
an ini file required to run the software
To test how it will behave in client machine, I'm using the same set of files on a fresh copy of Windows 7 on a virtual machine. The problem only appears to be specific to mfc/msvcr dependency of MAuEASE_s.dll.
On my machine, even though I've put the DLLs in executable's directory, they are picked from the following folder (found from Dependency Walker):
c:\windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft.vc80.mfc_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.6195_none_cbf5e994470a1a8f\MFC80.DLL
c:\windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft.vc80.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.6229_none_d089f796442de10e\MSVCR80.DLL
I've copied exactly these two DLLs in executable's directory, then copied the directory into virtual machine running Windows 7. There, Dependency Walker shows error for MAuEASE_s.dll:
The side-by-side configuration information for MAuEASE_s.dll contains error.
Screenshot:
Interestingly, from the manifest of MAuEASE_s.dll I found that it needs 8.0.50727.4053 version of both of the DLLs. But the DLLs found in development machine's c:\windows\winsxs have versions 8.0.50727.6195 and 8.0.50727.6229 but these DLLs still work on development machine.
I've searched the Windows directory for version 8.0.50727.4053 of the DLLs and found them and replaced them in the application's executable directory. The application still works on the development machine.
None of these versions work in the virtual machine.
What's going on and how can I find the exact DLLs to run the application in a PC where Visual Studio is not installed?
My answer doesn't target the problem how to fix the WinSxS error. It just shows how you can force the system to load the application local MFC DLLs.
The MFC80. DLL belongs to VS-2005. They introduced loading DLLs for the MFC side by side. So the Manifest inside the DLL tells the loader to find a public version in the WinSxS directories.
Even if you don't have the source of the MAuEASE_s.dll you can change the behaviour just in changing the embedded manifest. It is just a XML block.
You can just open the DLL in VS and you can modify the resource there. (Export/Import it). Or use another tool to modify the resources of an executable (Resource Hacker etc.)
Long time ago I wrote an article to use the MFC DLL as a private assemblies in your application directory. You just need to remove one token from the manifest. See here.
Alternativly you can create a new manifest as described in the article and replace the existing one with mt.exe.
Binaries built with Visual Studio prior to Visual Studio 2010 referenced dependent DLLs through a manifest (embedded or external). Dependencies referenced through a manifest are searched for in the native side-by-side assembly cache (WinSxS folder) only. The application's directory is not searched. To verify, whether a binary contains an embedded manifest you can use the manifest tool Mt.exe:
mt.exe -inputresource:<filename of binary> -out:manifest.txt
To deploy an application that references DLLs through a manifest, or references DLLs that do, you should deploy those binaries using the respective vcredist_<architecture>.exe download.
If you would rather not have to install files into the native side-by-side assembly cache (because your installer should not need admin rights, for example), you would need to modify the binary (MAuEASE_s.dll in your case). To do so you can retrieve the original manifest first (see above), update the manifest by removing the respective assembly references, and replacing the original RT_MANIFEST resource (using a resource editor like Visual Studio, or Mt.exe):
mt.exe -manifest manifest_new.txt -outputresource:<filename of binary>
Once that's done, you can deploy the DLLs alongside the binary that references them. Note, that this no longer allows you to link against a specific version of a DLL.
As xMRi and IInspectable suggested, I was able to modify the manifest inside the DLL to force load the particular DLL I put in the executable's directory. But it didn't solve the problem. Whenever I was launching the application on the fresh PC, I got the following error:
The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0150002).
In my development machine, I had tons of Visual C++ redistributable versions installed and I found several versions of mfc80.dll and msvcr80.dll in Windows directory. I copied all possible combinations of these two files of different version one by one and tried to launch the application. But it didn't work.
What did work is (what I wanted to avoid) - I opened the uninstall program window from control panel. There I found 3 different versions of Visual C++ 2005 redistributables are installed:
8.0.61001
8.0.50727.42 (this is x64 version)
8.0.56336
I started looking online for these installers. On the fresh PC I started installing the redistributables one by one and trying to launch the application. Finally I found that after installing version 8.0.61001, which is Visual C++ 2005 redistributable SP1 with MFC security update, the application successfully launched.
Now I'm going to pack the installer of this redistributable in my application's installer.
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.
When I try to open released .exe file (which I wrote in Visual Studio 2008) in VMWare Workstation 6.5 with Windows Server 2008 32bit OS, got "The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect." error all time even if the code is;
#include <stdio.h>
int main ()
{
printf ("HELLO\n");
return 0;
}
Is anyone faced that king of problem or does know how to cope with it?
You probably forgot to deploy the runtime support DLLs or copied the Debug build of your program. For a small program like this without DLLs that export C++ classes or pointers it is better to link the static version of the CRT. Project + Properties, C/C++, Code Generation, /MTd. Repeat for the Release configuration, now choose /MT.
It has nothing to do with VMWare -- it has to do with not having the correct side-by-side assemblies for the C runtime installed. You need to know which ones you require, and then install the runtime. You can also control it with a manifest.
There is some info here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Side-by-side_assembly
One easy way (for C/C++ programs) to get around this is to change to linking to the C-runtime statically. Go to your project properties, then Code Generation, and choose static linking for the C Runtime. Then you won't have a dependency on the runtime dlls. All libraries you might be using need to be linked this way for it to work.
I generally get this error if the C/C++ runtime that the program was built with was not installed in the VM. You can download the CRT for Visual Studio 2008 SP1 at Microsoft's website. Make sure to download the correct version of the CRT based on the versions of Visual Studio used to build the app.
My C(++) program, written and compiled using Visual C(++)/Visual Studio, runs fine on my own machine, but refuses to run on another machine. The error message I get is "This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem."
If you write a C++ program, it links dynamically to the C Runtime Library, or CRT for short. This library contains your printf, your malloc, your strtok, etcetera. The library is contained in the file called MSVCR80.DLL. This file is not by default installed on a Windows system, hence the application cannot run.
The solution? Either install the DLL on the target machine through VCREDIST.EXE (the Visual C++ Redistributable Package), or link to the CRT statically (plug the actual code for the used functions straight into your EXE).
Distributing and installing VCREDIST along with a simple application is a pain in the arse, so I went for the second option: static linking. It's really easy: go to your project's properties, unfold C/C++, click Code Generation, and set the Runtime Library to one of the non-DLL options. That's all there is to it.
The problem here is a missing DLL dependency, such as the CRT (C Runtime Library). A good tool for diagnosing this sort of problem is Dependency Walker (depends.exe), which you can find here:
http://www.dependencywalker.com/
You would run this program on the computer that generates the error message you posted, and use it to open the exe that's generating this error. Dependency Walker will quickly and graphically indicate any DLLs that are required but not available on the machine.
Chances are high that you miss the runtime libraries of Visual Studio (CRT amongst others), you can either get rid of those dependencies (link statically) or install the VC redist packages on the target computer.
Depending on the Visual C++ version you use, you have to install different packages :
Visual C++ 2005
Visual C++ 2005 SP1
Visual C++ 2008
Warning : those packages only contain release versions of the libraries, if you want to be able to distribute debug builds of your application you'll have to take care of the required DLL yourself.
It is much the simplest to link to the runtime statically.
c++ -> Code Generation -> Runtime Library and select "multi-threaded /MT"
However, this does make your executable a couple hundred KByte larger. This might be a problem if you are installing a large number of small programs, since each will be burdened by its very own copy of the runtime. The answer is to create an installer.
New project -> "setup and deployment" -> "setup project"
Load the output from your application projects ( defined using the DLL version of the runtime ) into the installer project and build it. The dependency on the runtime DLL will be noticed, included in the installer package, and neatly and unobtrusively installed in the correct place on the target machine.
The correct VC Redist package for you is part of your Visual Studio installation. For VC 8, you can find it here:
\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\BootStrapper\Packages\vcredist_x86
POSSIBLE SOLUTION........
EDIT: (removed most of my post)
Long story short, I was having similar problems, getting the "Application Configuration Incorrect" messages, etc etc.
Depends.exe was only finding ieshims.dll and wer.dll as possible issues, but this is not the problem.
I ended up using the Multithreaded (/mt) compile option.
What HAS worked though, as a workable solution, is making an installer with InstallShield.
I've selected several merge modules in installshield builder and this seems to have fixed my problem. The modules selected were:
VC++ 9.0 CRT, VC++ 9.0 DEBUG CRT, and the CRT WinSXS MSM merge module.
I'm pretty sure its the WinSXS merge module that has fixed it.
DEBUG CRT: I noticed somewhere that (no matter how hard I tried, and obviously failed thus far), my Release version still depended on the DEBUG CRT. If this is still the case, the InstallShield merge module has now placed the DEBUG CRT folder in my WinSXS folder :) Being somewhat of a novice with VC++ I assume that this would normally be used to distribute debug versions of your programs to other people. To test if this is what fixed my problem I removed the DEBUG CRT folder from the WinSXS folder and the application still worked. (Unless something is still running in the background etc etc - I'm not that into it)
Anyway, this has got things working for me on an XP SP3 fully updated machine, and also on a VMWare XP SP3 machine with the bare bones (.net 3.5 and VC++ 2008 RTM basically) - and also on a mate's XP machine where it previously wasn't working.
So give these things a try, you might have some luck.
First thing you must use
#define _BIND_TO_CURRENT_VCLIBS_VERSION 1
or add _BIND_TO_CURRENT_VCLIBS_VERSION=1 to the preprocessor directives.
The problem is related to binding and the manifest types, you can find more http://www.nuonsoft.com/blog/2008/10/29/binding-to-the-most-recent-visual-studio-libraries/
By doing this your application will run with a larger range of runtime libraries versions.
Often times this error is the result of attempting to run the debug version of an application that uses .NET. Since the .NET redistributable package doesn't include the debug versions of the dlls that are installed with Visual Studio, your application will often get this error when running it on any other machine that doesn't have Visual Studio installed. If you haven't already, try building a release version of your application and see if that works.
Note also - that if you change to static runtime, you will have to do the same for MFC if your app uses MFC. Those settings are in properties->Configuration/General
I ran into this problem and was able to fix it very simply.
Visual studio gives you the option (on by default) to build a manifest for each build.
The manifest was put in the release folder, but it was a different release folder than the exe.
Even when using the setup utilities it was not packaged.
You should look for a file names something like myprogram.exe.indermediate.manifest
If this is in the same folder as the exe (and you have all the dlls) it should run
After compiling a simple C++ project using Visual Studio 2008 on vista, everything runs fine on the original vista machine and other vista computers. However, moving it over to an XP box results in an error message: "The application failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect".
What do I have to do so my compiled EXE works on XP and Vista? I had this same problem a few months ago, and just fiddling with some settings on the project fixed it, but I don't remember which ones I changed.
You need to install the Visual Studios 2008 runtime on the target computer:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9b2da534-3e03-4391-8a4d-074b9f2bc1bf&displaylang=en
Alternatively, you could also link the run time statically, in the project properties window go to:
c++ -> Code Generation -> Runtime
Library and select "multi-threaded
/MT"
You need to install the runtime redistributable files onto the machine you are trying to run the app on.
The redistributable for 2008 is here.
The redistributable for 2005 is here.
They can be installed side-by-side, in case you need both.
You probably need to distribute the VC runtime with your application. There are a variety of ways to do this. This article from the Microsoft Visual C++ Team best explains the different ways to distribute these dependencies if you are using Visual Studio 2005 or 2008.
As stated in the article, though you can download the Redistributable installer package and simply launch that on the client machine, that is almost always not the optimal option. There are usually better ways to include the required DLLs such as including the merge module if you are distributing via Windows Setup or App-Local copy if you just want to distribute a zipped folder.
Another option is to statically link against the runtime libraries, instead of distributing them with your application. This option is only suitable for standalone EXEs that do not load other DLLs. You also cannot do this with DLLs that are loaded by other applications.
It is much the simplest to link to the runtime statically.
c++ -> Code Generation -> Runtime Library and select "multi-threaded /MT"
However, this does make your executable a couple hundred KByte larger. This might be a problem if you are installing a large number of small programs, since each will be burdened by its very own copy of the runtime. The answer is to create an installer.
New project -> "setup and deployment" -> "setup project"
Load the output from your application projects ( defined using the DLL version of the runtime ) into the installer project and build it. The dependency on the runtime DLL will be noticed, included in the installer package, and neatly and unobtrusively installed in the correct place on the target machine.
Visual studio 2005 actually has two
The one for the original release
and the one for SP1