Linker Support for Delay-Loaded DLLs

The Visual C++ linker now supports the delayed loading of DLLs. This relieves you of the need to use the Win32 SDK functions LoadLibrary and GetProcAddress to implement DLL delayed loading.

You should consider delay loading a DLL if:

• Your program may not call a function in the DLL.
  
  
• A function in the DLL may not get called until late in your program's execution.

The following topics describe delay loading DLLs:

• Specifying DLLs to Delay Load
  
  
• Explicitly Unloading a Delay-Loaded DLL
  
  
• Binding Imports
  
  
• Error Handling and Notification
  
  
• Dumping Delay-Loaded Imports
  
  
• Constraints of Delay Loading DLLs
  
  
• Understanding the Helper Function
  
  
• Developing Your Own Helper Function