Which Windows Libraries are missing from the Visual C++ Redistributable Package?

Question

I am using JNI to interface to a CAN driver I wrote using MSVC++ 2012. Everything compiles and runs fine - but only on my computer. Whenever I try to run on any other computer, I get the JNI "UnsatisfiedLinkError" - can't find dependent libraries. I've implemented JNI before, and typically this issue is resolved by simply installing the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package before running my program. The Redistributable does not solve my issue, however, installing the entire MSVC++ Express 2012 IDE on the computer in question seems to make everything work just fine. Thus, I assume this means that there is some dependency that gets installed and added to PATH when the IDE is installed but not when the Redistributable is installed. Just for verification, I uninstalled the IDE and my JNI driver failed to load once again. The primary difference between this and my other implementations of JNI is that I use Windows.h since it is required for the CAN API I use in my driver. Any ideas on any libraries installed with the IDE but not the Redistributable and whose prototypes are included with Windows.h? (Note: I am aware that Windows.h includes a number of headers itself but I imagine the other criteria make the issue a bit more specific.)

Answer 1

First guess: You are installing a debug build intead of a release build. Debug builds depend on debug versions of the CRT, which cannnot be redistributed.

Check that you are using the right "Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package". There are 2012, 2012 Update 1 and 2012 Update 2 (as well as many for 2010, 2008, ...).

Assuming your dependencies are load-time DLLs, you can use Depends to find out what's missing. (Note: you'll typically see some delay-load DLLs that are "missing". Ignore thoses; See the FAQ.)

Of course, once you find out the name and path of the missing DLL, you'll have to find out what redist package installs it.