I am by no means a computer expert, although I married one. Unfortunately for me and the computers at home, my personal computer expert works twelve hour days more often than not so I’m stuck deciphering the more technical sites to get the computers up and running again while he’s away. It’s nothing short of amazing how much you can figure out in an afternoon when a printable coupon or coloring page emergency strikes.

The Run DLL Error

In the case of the RunDLL Error, a critical file (the rundll file) is missing or corrupted on your machine. Unfortunately, this is likely due to a virus or spyware. Fortunately, you can resolve the error by cleaning your computer and ridding yourself of the pesky malware causing the problem in the first place.

Step 1: Identify the problem.

Fortunately for those of us who can boast only moderate technical skills, Windows does a nice job telling us when something is wrong.

An error message telling you something can’t be loaded and that a .dll file is missing is your first clue. To confirm the problem, you can copy and paste the error message into www.processlibrary.com to see the sort of issue you’re experiencing.

Either way, the info you need is that part before the .dll.  In the error message above, the offending program is called ctrlpan.  It’s the control panel.  For you, the particular program may be different.

Step 2: Reboot the machine.

The first choice of busy people everywhere, simply reboot the computer. Sometimes this is enough to cure what ails you. But sometimes it’s not. In which case there is a Step 3.

Step 3: Properly remove an offending program.

If you recently removed a program, it might have fragments lingering on your machine causing this problem.  Visit the Control Panel and select Add or Remove Programs. Select the program you tried to remove from the list and select Remove. Once it is completely gone, restart your machine while crossing your fingers. If that doesn’t work, try Step 4.

Step 4: Stop the Program from Running on Startup

If three reboots and malware protection haven’t helped, you can go into the executable files of your computer and manually delete the offending file. Go to Start and select Run. When the box pops up, type msconfig.

A new window will open up and you’ll see tabs at the top.  Click on the tab that says startup.

You’re not actually deleting a program here.  You’re removing the RUN command associated with a program.  This prevents Windows from trying to run that application on startup.  Since it won’t try to run it, it won’t fail to find the missing .dll file and subsequently return an error.  Again, disabling a STARTUP entry doesn't delete a program; it doesn't even affect the way it behaves.  I just tells Windows to not launch it when the computer starts.  Since only non-essential functions are listed in this STARTUP Tab, you can actually disable all of the startup entries without enacting any damage to your system.

When you’ve disabled the entry, restart the computer.

Step 5: Run your Antispyware program.

It’s time to get a bit more serious about fixing the error. The last line of general defense is running AntiSpyware or Anti-Virus software.  If a RunDLL error persists even after you've disabled startup items, then it could be a component of malware.  Odds are - if this is the case - the error won't be produced by the spyware itself, but as a side-effect of the malicious program running in your system.

If you don’t already have an antispyware program on your machine, do a bit of quick research and download a free program or a free trial of a program to investigate your machine and root out the problem. When the program has removed all spyware and other malware and has finished running, do one more restart to fully correct the problem.