What type of dll

Register a new DLL. If you have had to manually copy a DLL file into a folder for a program to use, you may need to register it in the Windows Registry before it can be used.

Refer to the program's documentation to determine if you'll need to perform this step it is extremely uncommon for most Windows programs. Navigate to the location of the new DLL file. If you are using Windows 7 or newer, open the folder containing the new DLL file, hold the Shift key and right-click in the folder, and select "Open command window here". The Command Prompt will open directly to that folder. Type regsvr32 dllname.

Type regsvr32 -u dllname. Method 2. Download and install a decompiler. A "decompiler" is a program that allows you to see the source code that was used to construct a file or program, in this case a DLL file. In order to see the code that makes a DLL file work, you will need to use a decompiler to revert it back into readable code. Opening a DLL file without a decompiler such as opening it with Notepad will result in a jumbled mess of unreadable characters.

It is available from jetbrains. Open the DLL file in your decompiler. You can explore the contents of the DLL file without affecting your system. You can expand each node to see any subnodes that it may contain. Double-click a node to see the code for it. The code for the node you select will appear in the right frame of dotPeek. You can scroll through the code to review it. If the node requires additional libraries to view, dotPeek will attempt to download them automatically.

Get clarification for different pieces of the code. If you've found a piece of code you don't understand, you can use the Quick Documentation feature to see what the command is doing. Place your cursor in the piece of code that you need documentation for in the Code Viewer frame. Follow the hyperlinks to learn more about each aspect of the code you are examining. Export the code to Visual Basic.

If you want to manipulate, edit, and build the file on your own, you can export it into Visual Studio. The exported code will be in C , even if it was originally written in a different language originally.

Select "Export to Project" Choose your export options. You can have the project opened immediately in Visual Studio if you'd like to get started on it immediately. Once you have the project loaded in Visual Studio, you will have complete control over editing and building the DLL into your own creation. It helps promote modularization of code, code reuse, efficient memory usage, and reduced disk space.

So the operating system and the programs load faster, run faster, and take less disk space on the computer. When you implement a. Net DLL Assembly in. NET you produce a Managed Assembly. Managed Assembly is the component standard specified by the. Net assemblies are understandable only to Microsoft.

NET and can be used only in. How can I detect the type of a dll? Asked 12 years, 2 months ago. Active 2 years, 10 months ago. Viewed 15k times. Improve this question. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Rob Stewart 19 4 4 bronze badges. Accepting this answer due to the nice links. Thank you to the other posters for the valuable comments. Anders Anders Well, this isn't a real answer, but a set of tips of things I'd look into.

Rui Craveiro Rui Craveiro 2, 13 13 silver badges 25 25 bronze badges. Hi, thanks. I have used the "try to load assembly" approach before - but it seems terribly clunky doesn't it? You can also use a module definition file to declare exported DLL functions. When you use a module definition file, you do not have to add the function keyword to the exported DLL functions. The following code is an example of a definition file.

In load-time dynamic linking, you must link the SampleDLL. In run-time dynamic linking, you use code that is similar to the following code to call the SampleDLL. With the introduction of. NET and the. An assembly is a logical unit of functionality that runs under the control of the.

An assembly physically exists as a. An assembly file contains an assembly manifest, type metadata, Microsoft intermediate language MSIL code, and other resources. The assembly manifest contains the assembly metadata that provides all the information that is required for an assembly to be self-describing. The following information is included in the assembly manifest:.

The MSIL code that is contained in the assembly cannot be directly executed. By default, when you create an assembly, the assembly is private to the application.

To create a shared assembly requires that you assign a strong name to the assembly and then publish the assembly in the global assembly cache. The following list describes some of the features of assemblies compared to the features of Win32 DLLs:. When you create an assembly, all the information that is required for the CLR to run the assembly is contained in the assembly manifest. The assembly manifest contains a list of the dependent assemblies. Therefore, the CLR can maintain a consistent set of assemblies that are used in the application.

In an assembly manifest, version information is recorded and enforced by the CLR. Additionally, version policies let you enforce version-specific usage. In Win32 DLLs, versioning can't be enforced by the operating system. You must make sure that DLLs are backward compatible.

Assemblies support side-by-side deployment. One application can use one version of an assembly, and another application can use a different version of an assembly. Starting in Windows , side-by-side deployment is supported by locating DLLs in the application folder. Additionally, Windows File Protection prevents system DLLs from being overwritten or replaced by an unauthorized agent. An application that is developed by using an assembly can be self-contained and isolated from other applications that are running on the computer.

This feature helps you create zero-impact installations. An assembly is run under the security permissions that are supplied in the assembly manifest and that are controlled by the CLR.

An assembly can be developed by using any one of the supported. NET languages. For example, you can develop an assembly in Microsoft Visual C , and then use the assembly in a Visual Basic. NET project. Deploying and Configuring Applications. Run-Time Dynamic Linking. Thread Local Storage.