Software Bisque Knowledge Base Article – 160

ON LAUNCHING APPLICATION, “.DLL NOT FOUND” ERROR

ISSUE

On launching TheSky, or other application, a “.DLL not found” error message such as the following is displayed:

“A required .DLL file, (filename), was not found.”

where (filename) may be MNCP32.DLL, SS32.DLL, DSS_DLL.DLL, or otherwise.

…and the program doesn’t run.

RESOLUTION

(Symantec Norton Utilities/WinDoctor users should see the special note below.)

FIND THE DLL FILE
Check the location of the indicated .DLL file on the system. Here’s how:
1. Right-click on the Start button and choose Find.
2. Enter the name of the indicated .DLL file into the Named field.
3. Set the Look In location to be your C: drive (or Local Hard Drives, if available).
4. Be sure the Include Subfolders option is checked.
5. Click the Find Now button.
The location(s) of the file will be displayed in the lower portion of the Find window. The shared and common files for Software Bisque’s 32-bit applications are placed in the C:/Program Files/Common Files/System folder (for Windows 95/98/NT). If more than one occurrence of the file is found, then it is likely that an incorrect one is interfering with the application’s operation. In this case, rename or delete (to the recycle bin) any such files not found in the just-named folder, and start the application again.

If the file is on the system, then Windows is not including its location in its search when the application requests it. This can be solved in one of three ways:

1. Uninstall the affected application and re-install it. (May not work for Windows NT 4.)
-or-
2. (Windows NT users only) Add the location found in the above “FIND THE DLL FILE” procedure to the Path system variable. To do so, choose Start / Settings / Control Panel / System and edit the “Path” system variable found in the Environment tab sheet. A semi-colon (“;”) should be placed between multiple definitions (e.g. “C:/Windows;C:/Program Files/Common Files/System”).
-or-
3. Add the location found in the above “FIND THE DLL FILE” procedure to the application’s Path setting in the Registry. Follow the “EDITING THE APPLICATION’S PATH SETTING” procedure below.

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NORTON UTILITIES USERS:
Symantec’s WinDoctor utility has been found to remove some of the registry entries for Software Bisque’s applications. This renders them inoperable. Symantec has informed us that they intend to correct this in a future release of WinDoctor, but in the meantime, here are two solutions:

1. Disable Norton Utilities.
2. Uninstall the affected application and re-install it.

–Or–

EDITING THE APPLICATION’S PATH SETTING
1. If running, close the affected application (e.g. TheSky).
2. Open the Registry Editor (Start / Run, type REGEDIT, then select OK).
3. Switch to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE window (listed under Window menu).
4. Open the key list (in the left-hand side of the Registry window) to Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/App Paths.
5. Select the affected application’s key (e.g. Sky.exe) from the key list.
6. Look in the value list (in the right-hand side of the Registry window) for a value named “(Default)”. If it isn’t present, add a string value (Edit, New, String Value) and change its name to “(Default)” – without the quotes.
7. Select the “(Default)” value from the value list, and set its data (Edit, Modify) to the location of the related executable file (e.g. Sky.exe). For TheSky, if the default location was used during installation, this should be:
“C:/Program Files/Software Bisque/TheSky”
8. Look in the value list for a value named “Path”. If it isn’t present, add a string value (Edit, New, String Value) and change its name to “Path” – without the quotes.
9. Select the “Path” value from the value list, and set its data (Edit, Modify) to the same location given in Step 7 above, plus that of the indicated .DLL file. For TheSky, if the default location was used during installation, this should be:
“C:/Program Files/Software Bisque/TheSky;C:/Program Files/Common Files/System”
10. Exit the Registry Editor (Registry, Exit) and your changes will automatically be saved.

You should now be able to start the application successfully.

As a LAST-DITCH EFFORT only, the application’s .DLL files could be copied directly into that application’s folder, however this is not recommended, as it may wreak havoc on future upgrades.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
From Symantec Support:
“Do you set the ‘(Default)’ value of the appropriate App Paths key? If not,
then it is considered not valid and WinDoctor (as its default solution)
removes the whole key . This obviously removes the ‘Path’ value within the
key and would then stop your programs from finding their DLLs.

WinDoctor’s solution to the problem is a bit heavy handed. I will add this
as an item to be changed in the next version.”

Symantec / Norton Utilities Development

APPLIES TO

General

KEYWORDS

SBKB

This article was formerly published under the identifier Q337KB in Software Bisque’s prior knowledge base.

Last Reviewed: 11/24/2004