Missing Atl.dll File

[paris14]

ANNOYING ERROR MESSAGE

Since I removed some unwanted programs from my PC (WIN98), I get the following error message each time I start my system: "ERROR STARTING PROGRAM°
A required .DLL file, ATL.DLL was not found"

How to get rid of this message?

APPRECIATE ANY TIPS YOU CAN GIVE ME
THANKS

[GaryRouth]

If some of the programs didn't seem to uninstall cleanly, or if you had to delete some manually, I like to recommend a run a RegClean 4.1 (which was updated for Win98). It's a Microsoft utility, & usually works well. The instructions on how to use it are in the ReadMe.txt file. http://download.com.com/3000-2094-881470.html?tag=list

If a program truly needs that file, you can run the System File Checker with the "restore one file from disk" and point to your Win98 installation CD or to the .cab files on your hard drive, if they were saved to C:/Windows/Options.

And welcome to the PcMechanic forums

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[p.s. a quick way to run the file checker is to type sfc in the Start/Run box. . .

you can also stop unwanted programs from starting by deleting them from the Start/Programs/Startup folder in your Start menu, or by placing a checkmark in the box preceding them in the Startup tab of System Configuration (type msconfig.exe in the Start/Run box)]

[Dan]

I find atl.dll in my windows/system folder, and also in the program folders for music match and autocad2002.
How did you "remove" the programs that you did? If it was through add/remove programs in control panel, perhaps this .dll file was removed, but still needed by other programs still on your system. I've run into this problem before.
Gary's suggestion to restore the file through sfc should do the trick. I would also do a search for the file to see if it is still in your system, to determine whether you need to restore it or extract it...

[paris14]

Thanks Gary & Dan,

In addition to your instructions, I also re-installed IE6, since I also started getting error messages stating: Outlook Express could not be started, due to a missing file: MSOE.DLL.

It seems that my initial problem is now solved, but I am a bit worried what may have caused it in the first place.
Any idea?

Thanks,
Lars from Paris

[GaryRouth]

Hi again

If you have an up-to-date antivirus program, no worries. It was probably just that one or more of the uninstalls (the programs you removed) took the more recent versions of those files away with them to nowhereland, and you were left with either no version at all, or one that was too old for some of your other programs.

The file alt.dll, for example, is used by many programs. I believe it's part of the ActiveX tools that programmers use when building for the Windows operating system. This particular one seems to be from "ATL" = "Active Template Library", which has several different versions. The dll (dynamic link library) alt.dll is shared by such programs as Roxio's EasyCDCreator/PhotoSuite, Lego's MindStorms series, some web authoring tools (possible a version is used by IE as well), and some communication programs such as Clear2Phone/PCtoPhone.

Seems odd that you were missing MSOE.dll, since that's pretty much what it looks like: a main file of "MS=Microsoft OE=Outlook Express", but if you uninstalled an email program, it might have also used Outlook Express files.

The only reason I mention antivirus at all is that some do infect/alter/delete files. If you had a hard drive or memory troubles, you'd see lots of errors in lots of programs --> so I'll bet that you'll be fine now that you've reinstalled IE.

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[paris14]

Thanks Gary,

I was also worried about a virus infection, although my Norton is up to date, so I hope this is not the reason for this strange behavior.

In any case, many thanks for your advise.

Lars from Paris