Tools: Dependency Checkers

DLL Universal Problem Solver Tool (DUPS)

DUPS is a freeware sample application available from Microsoft

The DUPS package is a set of utilities that you can use to track and compare DLL versions on multiple Windows-based computers, or on a single computer before and after you run a setup.

Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q247957 includes documentation and source code for this tool.

Microsoft DLL Database

Microsoft has put together a database of all DLLs, EXEs etc. they distribute with various applications and packages. You can search the database in three ways:

By file name: Returns a list of all versions of the specified file, and in which programs it is included.
By product: Generates a list of all files that are installed with the program.
By product and file name: Returns the version of a particlular file that is distributed with the specified product.

The databse also provides additional information about selfregistration, CLSIDs, location of the file on the distribution media etc.

This comes in very handy if you're wondering where a file is coming from or who had updated it.

Microsoft DLL Help Database

Examine File Dependencies

Dependency Walker (also displays the "real" binary file versions)

Dependency Walker is a free utility, written by Steve Miller.

Dependency Walker scans any 32-bit or 64-bit Windows module (exe, dll, ocx, sys, etc.) and builds a hierarchical tree diagram of all dependent modules. For each module found, it lists all the functions that are exported by that module, and which of those functions are actually being called by other modules. Another view displays the minimum set of required files, along with detailed information about each file including a full path to the file, base address, version numbers, machine type, debug information, and more. Dependency Walker is also very useful for troubleshooting system errors related to loading and executing modules. Dependency Walker detects many common application problems such as missing modules, invalid modules, import/export mismatches, circular dependency errors, mismatched machine types of modules, and module initialization failures.

Dependency Walker runs on Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP, 2003, and Vista. It can process any 32-bit or 64-bit Windows module, including ones designed for Windows CE.

Version 1.0 of Dependency Walker shipped with Microsoft Visual Studio 6. An update to version 2.x is highly recommended because it adds many important features.

Dependency Walker home page

LoadLib (examines a whole directory and also checks self registration)

This command line utility loads each .dll and .ocx in the current directory, and examines if the LoadLibrary succeeds. If not, an error message is presented and the WIN32 GetLastError() code is formatted as a string. The utility then attempts to determine the DllRegisterServer entry point in the loaded DLL. If this is found, the utility reports the file as self-registering, otherwise it reports it as not Self-registering. The advantage over just using regsvr32 is that you get the WIN32 error code, and that it does all the DLL' and OCX's in one directory in one shot.

The package contains both the C++ source code (using the Visual Studio .NET 2003 compiler) as well as a release-mode executable.

Sample output:

X:\Analyst\DebugOut>loadlib
DLL/OCX Loader, v. 1.0 (c)Friedrich Brunzema, MDS SCIEX

AcqMethodTimedEvents.dll -- OK, Self-Reg
ADCMethodSvr.dll -- OK, Self-Reg
ADCMethodSvrps.dll -- OK, Self-Reg
AgilentFileTransEngine.dll -- OK, Self-Reg
AgilentTranslator.dll -- OK, Not-SelfR
ArithmeticScanEngine.dll -- OK, Self-Reg
...

Fixed a bug in LoadLib.cpp (thanks to Celso Nagata)

LoadLib.zip Written by Friedrich Brunzema
File size: 22.983 bytes Last update: 2004-02-03

ShowDep (also displays the "real" binary file versions)

ShowDep by Serge Sorokin is no longer supported but still available

This great tool displays all the dependencies of the selected file in a tree view style. It adds itself to the context menu of executable files for your convenience. Optionally it can display the numerical and string version information of the file. InstallShield uses the numerical version info to decide whether a file should be overwritten. But looking at the file properties in Windows Explorer only shows you the string version entry, that may differ from the numerical value.

ShowDep analyzes static and dynamic links as well as OLE dependencies.

Visit the ShowDep homepage to find additional information.

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