pointertovoid Posted September 15, 2016 Share Posted September 15, 2016 Hello the experts! On my (probably infested) Xp, most applications call a Comctl32.dll ubiquated in C:\Windows\WinSxS instead of the usual one. I had not noticed that up to now, but the excellent Faber Toys shows it with the full file path, see the appended screenshot. Hence I ask you: Is this normal, safe and sound? Or shall I consider that a malware has replaced the normal Comctl32.dll by a fake one, say in order to observe the activity on my computer? If it's normal, would you know which update or application installs the modified dll? Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted September 15, 2016 Share Posted September 15, 2016 Surely a 6.0.2600.5512 version looks "queer", but should be "legit". There are a lot of variables that may affect which version of a .dll a program uses, including SP level, KB updates, Internet Explorer version and more or less *what not*. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh298349(v=vs.85).aspx Compare also with an archived version of the same page (just to show how much information MS is retracting from availability):https://web.archive.org/web/20140424001851/http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh298349(v=vs.85).aspx The (flawed BTW) way WinSxS attempts to solve DLL Hell is vey likely part of the reason. jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pointertovoid Posted September 24, 2016 Author Share Posted September 24, 2016 Thanks! Apparently it's just a Visual Studio runtime that installs this mess, so I won't worry about it. I just felt bizarre that a runtime puts its dirty fingers on an OS dll and redirects all calls by the applications to its own new version of the dll. Legitimate OK, but it looked suspicious, and for sure unexpected. A runtime modifying the OS, this reminds me of MS Office on Win95. After installing an English Word and a German Excel on the French Win95, the actions at all applications looked like Fermer le programme Do you want to save the file? Ja - Nein which is fun the first two times and boring from the third time on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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