Porting VisualC++ programs from Win95 to NT

[Zulfi Khan]

I have written a program in Win95 using VC++ 5 Enterprise version but when I run the program on windows NT, a message box comes and it gives the following error:
"The ordinal 6453 could not be located in the dynamic link library MFC42.DLL"
I use Win Zip multiple disk spanning option to port from Win 95 machine to Win NT machine.

[Cathy]

You have to redistribute the mfc42.dll.

If the version of mfc42.dll on the VC CD is newer than the one on the NT machine (it's in the windows system subdirectory usually c:\winnt\system32), copy your newer one over and register it (regsvr32.exe mfc42.dll).

I don't think Win Zip can do this for you. You might have to look at using an installation program like InstallShield or InstallWise to redistribute your application.

Also this will probably not be the only file you will have to redistribute. Microsoft has a utility called "Dependency Walker" that will show you what dll's and ocx's your application needs. Then you'll have to figure out which one's need to be registered, and which one's have to be installed and registered before the other one's, lest the registration fails.

It's a mess! I think Microsoft should make it easier to redistribute an application written using their tools. Good luck!

You might go to www.installsite.org. They have a lot of information on this subject. They also have an updated Dependency Walker utility. Also there is a white paper outlining the various pitfalls of installing Microsoft dll's at www.ScarabSoftware.com.