How do I find out which dlls an executable will load?

If I have a Windows executable, how can I find out which dlls it will load?

I'm just talking about which ones that will be loaded statically, not ones it might load dynamically with something like LoadLibrary.

Solution 1:

dumpbin is a tool that comes with VC++.

To see what DLLs a program will import:

Open Visual Studio
Menu Item Tools | Visual Studio Command prompt
cd to folder containing executable
dumpbin /dependents whatever.exe

Dump of file whatever.exe

File Type: EXECUTABLE IMAGE

  Image has the following dependencies:

    AIOUSB.DLL
    sqlite3.dll
    wxmsw293u_core_vc_custom.dll
    wxbase293u_vc_custom.dll
    KERNEL32.dll
    ole32.dll
    OLEAUT32.dll
    MSVCP90.dll
    MSVCR90.dll

To see what functions (and DLLs) it will import, use

C:\> dumpbin /imports whatever.exe

Solution 2:

There are utilities that will do this for you.

In the past I've used the MS tool (depends.exe) that came with (I think) VB.:
VS2010 VS2012 VS2013 VS2015 Current

and there's this as well:
http://dependencywalker.com/

and probably others as well.

Solution 3:

Open the command prompt and then type below command

tasklist /m /fi "imagename eq netbeans.exe"

Type instead netbeans.exe whatever name your exe file name.

Solution 4:

Just go to the command prompt and type tasklist /m, you will see the list of dll files used by specific program.

Solution 5:

Dependency Walker can help you determine which .dll will be loaded.