Debugging DLL dependency issues on Windows

Debugging DLL dependency issues on Windows

Our release packages for Windows consist of a primary module DLL, mod-openvino.dll, along with a bunch of other DLL's for which this primary DLL has dependencies on.

In rare instances, we have received reports that the OpenVINO AI module is failing to load with this message:

This error, the specified module could not be found usually indicates that there is some DLL dependency that is not being resolved. Obviously our intent is to package up all of the required dependencies, so it's always a little bit puzzling to us.

One very useful tool that can be used to help debug the issue is a tool called Dependencies. It can be downloaded from here: Dependencies_x64_Release.zip

Extract this zip file. Within the extracted folder, Dependencies_x64_Release, you'll find the tool that we will use called DependenciesGUI.exe.

Here are the step-by-step instructions for how to use this tool to debug DLL dependency issues.

1. Right-click on DependenciesGUI.exe and choose Copy as Path (Note: On Windows 10, you may need to hold shift key during right-click to see this option)

   

2. In Windows explorer, navigate to the folder where you have Audacity installed (typically C:\Program Files\Audacity), right-click someplace in the folder (but not on a file) and choose Open in terminal (Note: In Windows 10, you may need to hold shift key during right-click to see this option).
   

3. Run the following commands:

cmd

<right-click to paste the path you copied in step 1> modules\mod-openvino.dll