.dll

When a program under windows calls for a .dll file, will it always look for the file in the win dir?

If it does would it be safe delete any duplacate .dll files from the programs dir, this leaving the most recent one in the win dir?

It seems dll files are one of the #1 space users.

 

No not always. Some programs store them in there own directories.

 

So were stuck with duplicate files, if we like it or not.

Why can't programmers just require a dll file be called for from the win dir?

 

leave it unless, you just uninstalled a program, and the dll is in a directory by that programs name. For example lets say you had installed a program called "test" and you later uninstalled that program, sometimes when a program is unistalled the directory test and certain files may or may not have been deleted. In this case the directory "test" can be deleted along with any dll that was in that directory or sub-directories of that.

Other than that, it does no harm to leave them there, but if you delete a dll that is needed , you could have problems. some dll's are used by more than 1 program.

 

Plumber2000, I would not venture to answer your first two questions because deleting .dlls could render any number of applications useless sending you in search of "missing dlls". You got me curious how many .dlls I have on my PC and a search turned up 209 MB worth. I have no duplicates, that I can find, and if I found a dozen wonder where the savings would be in deleting them. A few bytes at best. We are all out to preserve our harddrive space but IMHO .dll's are not the place to find it. If you want to delete something truly useless, in my opinion, check your "wingding" folder under fonts...Mike