Software Development can be a fickle beast. The lead time to create a program for a simple task may take months. Fixing a simple bug can create ten more bugs and crash the entire program. These problems have only been exacerbated with time. As hardware gets complex, the software aspect of the equation has also gotten complicated, and hence, things tend to break with time. In that context, sometimes firing up random applications can result in the sudden display of an error on the lines of “msvcr100.dll not found”, or some permutation of the aforementioned file being missing, corrupt, or unavailable.

This error can actually occur for a variety of reasons, with some instances seeming as apparently random and illogical upon an initial glance. Let’s go over some reasons why this may happen.

1) A Piece Of Virus/Malware May Have Deleted The Requisite File From Your System

While Antiviruses and anti-malware technology has improved over the years it is no secret that malware and viruses remain to be an issue. The preferred vector in today’s time is mostly phishing where the key component is deception. Infection occurs by the passing of infected links that are masquerading as legitimate links to trusted websites, often through accounts or emails impersonating real-life personalities.

In the context of these files, malware may delete or corrupt these Dynamic Link Library (DLL) files to create disruption in the regular functioning of your computer. In the context of files like msvcr100.dll, an infection would disrupt regular functioning at a very high level as this particular file relates to the Microsoft C Runtime Library. Lots of system-level functions are coded on C, disruption of this class of file will lead to crashes and errors. 

As a side note, even Windows itself, the operating system, is coded on a kernel that had been written in C, with some components in Assembly language.

As is evident with the rationale and facts presented above, any disruption in this file will cause system errors and prevent applications from functioning, causing errors like “msvcr100.dll not found”, or some variant of the same.

In such a scenario, the simple solution is to use a good antivirus and purge it from your system, and this will likely redress the issue.

2) The Dll Was Not Installed In The First Place

While one may first think that any error in proper functioning was caused by malice, or a serious malfunction, incurred by way of a virus, malware or hacking attack. It is possible at the same time that the reason for nonfunctioning is just an innocuous case where the prerequisite file is not present on the system in the first place.

Installation of Windows is a complex task, and it has millions of users. As a result, Windows does not come with every possible permutation and combination of software installed. Such a case would increase the size of the installation, and increase the time that it would take to install, and make the process more complicated.

It is possible that the relevant DLL was just not installed in the first place on one’s system. In this case, the solution becomes much more simple. All one needs to do is look for the requisite DLL on a well-reputed website and download the same. 

The process of installing the DLL File is also simple. All that is needed to be done is to dump it in the relevant system folder depending on the architecture of your Windows (32 bit or 64 bit), and put a copy of the same with the executable of the program that one is attempting to launch, and the issue will be resolved.

3) The Specific File Is Corrupted/Deleted

Software today is highly complex and makes changes to one’s system at a very high speed. The interesting part is that these changes are often hidden or even ignored by the end-user. When an application says “Installing” or “Updating”, one tends to assume that it is “just doing its thing” and no one seems to care what exact minute changes it’s making to the system. While of course, the applications are doing these changes and installing files to run, sometimes they interact with other components of Windows that may not mesh so well with them. In such a scenario, they may copy over, or corrupt the relevant file, rendering it inoperable, and resulting in errors. 

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The solution in such a scenario is similar to the previous one: fetch a new copy of the requisite DLL file and put it in the directories as mentioned above.