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Using Native DLLs in CrossOver

I have a question about the following document:
=
Using Native DLLs in CrossOver

Builtin DLLs are included in CrossOver and are located in ~/cxoffice/lib/wine. You must use the builtin versions of some DLLs (e.g. kernel32, user32, x11drv, ntdll, winsock, d3d8, dsound, mci), however having the native versions of certain DLLs can improve the functionality of many programs.

In order to use these DLLs you will first need to:
• Retrieve the DLLs from a Windows CD or install, or
• Download the DLLs from a server on the internet, or
• Have an application install the DLLs for you

http://www.codeweavers.com/support/docs/unsupported/tyc

The above document is rather vague and ambiguous. For example, I can't find that path on my system disk. And how would I know that a program which does not run properly in Crossover requires a native DLL? Crossover does not even list the DLL dependencies of an installed application, so I would not know what DLL's to try replacing. Thoughts/comments/suggestions invited.

Retrieving and using native DLL's is a bit tricky in that one must understand the EULA for the applicable DLL, and those EULA's vary. For this reason, we do not give "blanket instructions" on how to do so. The other reason is that using Native DLL's in Crossover, while possible, is completely unsupported. Detailed instructions posted by us on an unsupported action will lead to increased questions regarding those instructions for our support staff, which would essentially make that operation supported.

Crossover does not present a full list of DLL dependencies for an installed application, it's true. The way that would one would figure out if Crossover is failing on a missing DLL would be to run a debug log of the program, trigger the error in question, and then close the program and examine the log for evidence of .dll files not found on an exception or error.

Instructions on how to generate a log can be found here:

http://www.codeweavers.com/support/wiki/submittechsupportlog

I can see the dilemma here, and no doubt there will be some people who borrow a few DLL's to get a specific application working. However, if you have purchased an installation disc and you are not using the software on another machine, there should be no licensing issues. For example, if it's not a license violation to use the software with Boot Camp, it should be okay to use it with Crossover too. My point here is that you have no legal obligation to enforce a third party EULA. If you don't want to support this feature, I can respect that--especially if you don't have the manpower to handle tech support requests. But that is all the more reason why this should be addressed in the Wiki. It would be even better if there was a function in Crossover that automatically copied all of the files that you might need from an original Windows CD. A good example of something which does this already is Parallels Desktop. Most people would prefer Crossover to Boot Camp or Parallels for obvious reasons like: time to launch / system resources used / disk space consumed, et cetera. You could make it clear in the advertising that no tech support will be available for this feature. Another option would be to point the customer to a third-party utility which would accomplish the task of setting this up in much the same way as you do with bottle creation.

Please Note: This Forum is for non-application specific questions relating to installation/configuration of CrossOver. All application-specific posts to this Forum will be moved to their appropriate Compatibility Center Forum.

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