He holds a bachelors in Computer Applications, and he now pens complex how-to’s and other handy Windows guides for his readers; he also has a strong interest in Cybersecurity and Productivity. When not researching or writing, he can be found enjoying a good book, running, or hanging out with friends. Libraries are independent programs that can be used over and over again by a programmer or another program. The first time most people encounter the term “DLL” is when a program fails to open due to a missing DLL file. If you do not have the installation media, you can access the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) by pressing F8 during startup and selecting Repair your computer from the Advanced Boot Options menu.

The tool even gives you easy access to the apps and files you use most frequently. Deleting your file explorer search history ensures better privacy, prevents unauthorized access or viewing, and avoids a cluttered file explorer search bar. Windows will keep a history of the items you have searched for over time. So, each time you type in a search query, you will see a list of recently searched items. You might want to clear this from time to time, especially if you’re on a shared PC or want a fresh start. We already showed you how to turn off autocomplete in File Explorer.

• Thus, one cannot reliably import Windows API functions by their ordinals.
• Windows is the only operating system that uses this approach of a central registry.
• In addition, Windows 10 itself includes some junk apps you probably never use.
• If you encounter any issues while repairing the Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable, use the Uninstall option to remove both packages from your computer.

For those early sqlite3 versions of Windows (1.0 to 3.11), the DLLs were the foundation for the entire GUI. Dynamic Link Library (DLL) files contain code and objects for Windows programs reference when they need to complete tasks. Unlike programs, DLLs aren’t the types of files you can run or browse without special software, nor can you open a DLL in text editor to see its code.

Remove rogue Registry entries

Let’s explore the basics elements of the Windows Registry before we start getting our hands dirty. Stack Exchange network consists of 181 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. Other command line options include a VBScript or JScript together with CScript, WMI or WMIC.exe and Windows PowerShell. Exports the specified (sub)key (which has to be enclosed in quotes if it contains spaces) only. Export the specified (sub)key (which has to be enclosed in quotes if it contains spaces) only.

Generally, if you’re using Microsoft Windows, you can simply run programs by finding them in the Start Menu or from the Windows search tool and clicking on them. These programs might use shared code files called dynamic link libraries, or DLL files, that have a .dll extension, but you generally don’t run or access DLL files directly. If you do need to inspect or work with DLL files for some reason, there are a number of both free and commercial tools to help you do so. Dynamic-link library (DLL) is Microsoft’s implementation of the shared library concept in the Microsoft Windows and OS/2 operating systems. These libraries usually have the file extension DLL, OCX (for libraries containing ActiveX controls), or DRV (for legacy system drivers).

This reinstalls Windows 10 and updates it to the latest version, plus it removes all installed apps. Only your personal files and “some Windows settings” are kept.