I just developed my first program in C++ and I wanted to show it with one of my friends. Sadly, when he tries to open the exe it gets an error which says "MSVCP140.dll is missing". Why is this issue happening and how can he/I fix it?


Either make your friends download the runtime DLL (@Kay's answer), or compile the app with static linking.

In visual studio, go to Project tab -> properties - > configuration properties -> C/C++ -> Code Generation on runtime library choose /MTd for debug mode and /MT for release mode.

This will cause the compiler to embed the runtime into the app. The executable will be significantly bigger, but it will run without any need of runtime dlls.


Your friend's PC is missing the runtime support DLLs for your program:

  • Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015

That usually means that your friend does not have the Microsoft redistributable for Visual C++. I am of course assuming you are using VC++ and not MingW or another compiler. Since your friend does not have VS installed as well there is no guarantee he has the redist installed.

VC++ Distro