dll orphans

sacles

Hello,

can JV16 2010 search the orphan dll? If yes, what is the procedure?

In advance, thanks for your help.

jv16

Please define "DLL orphan"?

sacles

Dll orphan = dll (files) that have been abandoned by uninstalled programs (dll file that does not recover its native application).

sacles

jv16

It's not possible to detect which DLL files are in use and which are not, Windows does not provide this kind of functionality.

PowerTools' File Cleaner lists what files should be safe to delete from the system.

henry

FYI, the following software detect DLL orphans:

1. DLL Archive v1.01 (http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/system/dllarch.htm)

2. DLL Sweeper v2.0 (http://www.windll.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2)

3. DLL Orphans v1.0 (http://www.windll.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5)

jv16

Henry wrote
FYI, the following software detect DLL orphans:

1. DLL Archive v1.01 (http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/system/dllarch.htm)

2. DLL Sweeper v2.0 (http://www.windll.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2)

3. DLL Orphans v1.0 (http://www.windll.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5)

Sure, it's possible to write a software that attempts to do this. You could do this, for example, by examining the Last Accessed and Last Modified date stamps of DLL files, as well as to look for references to DLL files from the registry.

But I'm afraid both these methods result in tons of false positives, and deleting just one wrong DLL file could render your Windows useless. Is it worth the risk? I don't think so.

Just for fun, I downloaded DLL Archiver by AnalogX. I did just a quick browse through its list and the result list contains dozens of DLL files that I know are used by software currently installed to my system.