On 5 Mar 99, at 14:14, Arthur Barnett wrote:

> I have accumulated in my Win95\System file a large number of .dll
> files, many of which I am sure are no longer used by applications on
> my computer. Does anyone know of a program which might test the .dll
> files to see if they are attached or to name the application to which
> they belong. It would be helpful to me to recover some disk space.

  Actually, the reverse is *sort of* possible.

  There are two ways that an executable (or another .DLL) can refer to
a .DLL.  If the reference is "static", it can be found in header
information; QuickView shows .EXE/.DLL ("module") headers, including
these.
  Unfortunately, some references are "dynamic", with the application
determining at runtime what .DLL(s) to load and call.  This code may
include provisions to enumerate the available DLLs, so the names that
will be used aren't necessarily in the binaries.  A search of system
module headers is going to miss these references.

  A few of the "uninstaller" products out there install a resident
module that records use of .DLLs.  After you've had this installed for
a while, it can tell you what .DLLs have not been used.
  On the one hand, this will find dynamic references that a header scan
would have missed.  On the other hand, after 3 weeks it may still show
as "unused" a DLL that your monthly payroll run will need....

  SOME of the DLLs in the Windows directory may be there because a
programmer was lazy.  But in general installation to this directory
indicates that a DLL *might* be shared by several applications, and
this is why a package-specific uninstall will often leave them behind.

David G

             PCSOFT maintains many useful files for download
              on our web site - visit our download page at:
                     http://nospin.com/pc/files.html