当我在另一台计算机上执行（在计算机上编译的）.exe时，出现此错误

Question

It's my first time using Visual Studio 2017. I built a simple program in C++ on my PC. I was curious to see if my program works on another PC. I tried to execute the .exe on the other computer and it gave me this kind of error:

vs(some letters and numbers).dll is missing.

I assume that the .dll in question is part of Visual Studio.

I tried on a third PC, and this time the cmd stops working and becomes unresponsive after I execute my .exe .

I also have this problem when I compile with MinGW using the g++ compile feature in the cmd . When I execute the program compiled with MinGW on another PC, it gives me the same error, but this time it says something like

gw...dll is missing

Is there a way to avoid this error without installing the Visual Studio (or MinGW at this point) on any other PC I want my program to run on?

If you're interested in the code, I can put it here, but I don't think it's the problem here because I have the same issue for every other .exe compiled on my PC.

Here's a picture of the error:

Answer 1

In case of Visual Studio, you need to install Visual C++ Redistributable libraries or provide the libraries that are required by your application with .exe file (I am not sure if it violates license or not though).

In case of MinGW, you need to provide required DLL as well. I guess that you need libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll and libstdc++-6.dll , but you would better check it yourself. And remember about the license.

You may use Dependency Walker to analyse dependencies of your application.

UPDATE (2017-12-12): I've missed the time you posted the screenshot. As far as I see from it the problem is that you are trying to run debug version of your executable: ucrtbased.dll is the debug version of the ucrtbase library and is only available (from what I know) from Visual Studio distribution. If you want to run your application on the computers that do not have installed Visual Studio, then you should use the Release version of your application.

Answer 2

In order to understand your problem you need to understand the concept of DLL. Dynamic-link library(DLL) - As described by Microsoft:

A DLL is a library that contains code and data that can be used by more than one program at the same time. For example, in Windows operating systems, the Comdlg32 DLL performs common dialog box related functions. Therefore, each program can use the functionality that is contained in this DLL to implement an Open dialog box. This helps promote code reuse and efficient memory usage.

So to put it simply, DLL is basically a bunch of compiled code, which is being linked to your code at load (or even run-time). Now, of course if your system is missing the DLL, your progrem will fail to work. To make things even worse, DLL are sensitive to the compiler that was used. So each DLL might have multiple version, so you will need to right DLL.

Now to the problem itself, the error message are the best way to start. They guide you what DLL are missing, and what is their name. For instance in your case "vs*.dll" is most likely related to Visual C++ runtime redistributable .

Finally, please note you have another consideration to make in addition to make your own system work: Every one that will use your code might face the exact same problem. So if you actually intend to share your .EXE with other people, you will need to understand how to guide them, or even automate their installation process.