About DLLs

On Microsoft Window's operating systems, a DLL stands for Dynamic Link Library.
DLL's are relatively small files that include a library of functions- usually data that can be
shared across multiple applications. DLL's are called upon by various applications and
can be loaded and utilized by these applications concurrently.

Registering a DLL

There are two easy ways that a DLL can be registered in your Window's operating
system's registry, the first is the simplest, known as self registering files, the second way
is to manually register a DLL.

Self Registering Files

It should be noted that many DLL files are self registering, they include information
required to store themselves in the operating system's registry. As the name states, self
registering files require no human intervention. Self registering files will automatically
store themselves on your machine and become accessible when needed. Besides DLL
files, other types of files that are sometimes self registering include .EXE and .OCX.

Manually Register Files

The second method used to register DLL files on your computer is via manual
registration. Manually registering a DLL file is quite simple and can be done in only a
few steps.
1. The first step is turn on your computer, launching your Window's operating
system.
2. Once your Window's operating system has loaded completely, click on Start and
then click on Run.
3. In the third step, you will input in the Run field a command that tells your
computer to register the DLL file. You will need to input specific information
including the path and the file name. The following is a template for the
command: regsvr32 "\FileName.dll"
It is important to note that path is the actually location or directory of where the
file is located. Filename is obviously the name of the DLL file you will be
registering. Below is a sample command:
Regsvr32 "C:\Windows\System32\example.dll"
4. Once the command is input into the Run field correctly, press Enter.
5. Once the DLL has been registered, you should receive a confirmation in the form
of a pop up box. This message will list your newly registered DLL file and
confirm that is was successfully registered into the registry.

Unregistering a DLL

For Unregistering the DLLs use the same procedure with the additional option of /u.