gdiplus.dll - what's this for?

  • Thread starter Thread starter *Vanguard*
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*Vanguard*

After installing Windows XP SP-1 (and after lots of app installs and
tweaking), I noticed this file sitting in the root folder (C:\). Seems a
weird place for a DLL. What is it for?

I did a search on gdiplus.dll and besides C:\ it was also found under:

C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.Windows.GdiPlus_6595b64144ccf1df_1.0.0.0_x-w
w_8d353f13\GdiPlus.dll
C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.Windows.GdiPlus_6595b64144ccf1df_1.0.10.0_x-
ww_712befd8\GdiPlus.dll

I'm wondering if this is because once I decided to see what ClearText was
like. Made all the screen text way too fuzzy. Maybe it works okay on LCD
screens but not on CRTs.
 
"Kelly" said in news:[email protected]:
Do some reading here: http://tinyurl.com/2szo8



C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.Windows.GdiPlus_6595b64144ccf1df_1.0.0.0_x-w
C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.Windows.GdiPlus_6595b64144ccf1df_1.0.10.0_x-
Click to expand...

Strange that a search in OE6 within this newsgroup using Microsoft's own
news server doesn't turn up the articles found by a search through Google
Groups.

In a registry search on "gdiplus.dll", I found the following key:


HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\C
omponents\F1B496B301445D115AA4000972A8B18B

with a data name of 3B6033987B1C0FC43A5F027C40D7A680 which has a value of:

C:\gdiplus.dll

So something is expecting this file to be in root directory of the C: drive.
A search on "F1B496B301445D115AA4000972A8B18B" didn't find any other keys or
data values referencing it. A search on "3B6033987B1C0FC43A5F027C40D7A680",
the data name, turned up several registry keys, of which the following was
of interest:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\3B6033987B1C0FC43A5F027C40D7A680
with a data name ProductName = "MMC87".

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\C
omponents\0170FF2D52C2DB34E908CF9C7E10A859
with a searched data name having a value of C:\Program Files\ATI
Multimedia\...

There were more but basically it points at ATI's Multimedia Center (MMC) as
the culprit. I have to wonder about the question mark ("?") in the path for
the last data item mentioned above. So it looks like I need to ask ATI why
they want a copy of gdiplus.dll in the root of the C: drive. However, there
are also references in the registry regarding "GDI+ file thumbnail
extractor" which sounds more related to Microsoft's thumbnail view in
Explorer and other applications.

There are currently 3 copies of this file, all of which with a Description
of "Microsoft GDI+":

- Version 5.1.3097.0 in C:\.
- Version 5.1.3097.0 in
C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.Windows.GdiPlus_6595b64144ccf1df_1.0.0.0_x-w
w_8d353f13
- Version 5.1.3101.0 in
C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.Windows.GdiPlus_6595b64144ccf1df_1.0.10.0_x-
ww_712befd8

Because there are references in the registry to the copy in C:\, deleting it
would probably cause problems. But it is a stupid location to store this
file.
 
On Fri, 2 Jan 2004, *Vanguard* wrote in
After installing Windows XP SP-1 (and after lots of app installs and
tweaking), I noticed this file sitting in the root folder (C:\). Seems
a weird place for a DLL. What is it for?
Click to expand...

I don't know why an app would install it in C:\ but gdiplus.dll is a
graphics library (gdi = graphics device interface) installed by default
with XP and is the next step up from the gdi.dll supplied with earlier
OS's. Applications can use either/both, and not just with XP.
 
I'm not sure if you're still interested in knowing the answer to this, but just in case...

Right after installing Pinnacle Studio 14-16 on my PC, this file appeared in the root directory. It's the only s/w I've installed that makes this file appear there. Since I'm anal about where files are placed on my hard drive and not liking this single file in the root directory, but not wanting to just delete the file without knowing if it was still needed, I searched my PC for duplicates and found other copies of it on my hard drive. And playing it extra safe, I simply moved the file from the root directory to a C:\TEMP directory I always create for this sort of thing, which this directory has no ties to all other folders on my C: drive and isn't shared or included in the Search Index to be found.

So... I moved it, reboot, and nothing bad happened. I ran Pinnacle, and still no problem. I then put the file back in the root directory and reboot the PC once, and voila! It was gone. Go figure.

It's good to test random appearing files like that just to see what would happen. If anything strange starts going on, or files appear out of nowhere (especially after an install), I use the TEMP directory for just this sort of reason and move files in there and do stuff to see what happens. In this case, it worked out for the best. I've been using Microsoft/IBM PC's since MS-DOS 1.0 and can tell ya that I've seen just about everything weird you can imagine - and this qualifies as one of the more weird occurances which I was curious enough to Google search and find your post.

Summary: You may have just installed an app that dropped that file into the root and hadn't reboot your PC since then. If something like that happens again, try rebooting first and see if the file goes away. If not, try moving it to a self-created C:\TEMP directory and reboot and/or run the last program you installed before the file in question appeared and see what happens. As you probably already know, a person is asking for trouble if they permanently delete a file, folder or directory of files without backing them up first and messing around (i.e. rebooting, running new app/game, renaming file or deleting it from where they found the file, etc etc). <Shrug>

What did you end up doing with that file in the end?

:wave:
 
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