# What's the easiest was to stop 'missing dll's' error message when starting Vista? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 1, 2008, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-easiest-was-to-stop-missing-dlls-error-message-when-starting-vista/454957 "2008-07-01T19:57:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SweetHomeColorado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d26b3c/32.png) [@SweetHomeColorado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SweetHomeColorado)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-easiest-was-to-stop-missing-dlls-error-message-when-starting-vista/454957/1 "2008-07-01T19:57:40Z")
I get about four when I boot up. What’s the easiest way? Are there any shareware/freeware programs out there that can diagnose and fix this? ---
**Author:** ![Grave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@Grave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grave)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-easiest-was-to-stop-missing-dlls-error-message-when-starting-vista/454957/2 "2008-07-01T20:37:15Z")
So far, the only time I saw Vista do this a user had simply deleted a program’s directory without running the appropriate uninstaller. A trip to the remove software panel solved it. Viruses have also been known to cause this on other OSes. Can you list the dlls? ---
**Author:** ![SweetHomeColorado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d26b3c/32.png) [@SweetHomeColorado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SweetHomeColorado)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-easiest-was-to-stop-missing-dlls-error-message-when-starting-vista/454957/3 "2008-07-01T20:40:06Z")
they have bizarre names, just strings of letters and numbers. I believe this was caused by a virus that I have since eliminated from my system. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-easiest-was-to-stop-missing-dlls-error-message-when-starting-vista/454957/4 "2008-07-01T20:54:35Z")
[QUOTE=SweetHomeColorado] they have bizarre names, just strings of letters and numbers. I believe this was caused by a virus that I have since eliminated from my system. [/QUOTE] Perhaps not entirely? Are you getting any more hits through your virus protection software? You can also try running msconfig (just type in msconfig after clicking on the start menu). Check out the start up and services tab see if you spot any of these bogus .dll files. ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-easiest-was-to-stop-missing-dlls-error-message-when-starting-vista/454957/5 "2008-07-01T21:17:53Z")
Yep, as **Kinthalis** says, run MSCONFIG and uncheck anything suspicious. Download and install Spybot and AVG and run them. Both can be found at [download.com](http://download.com). Run Windows Update, too. ETA - **SHC** has an update. If the last one is tricky, try starting in safe mode, then running the scans. It should fix it. ---
**Author:** ![SweetHomeColorado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d26b3c/32.png) [@SweetHomeColorado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SweetHomeColorado)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-easiest-was-to-stop-missing-dlls-error-message-when-starting-vista/454957/6 "2008-07-01T21:17:53Z")
Yes, my av seems more active than normal and 3/4 of the dlls were active on the msconfig which I removed. 1 is still active that I can’t find and is still on the list