Visual Studio c++ 2015 runtime deployment with legacy application
<p>I have a winforms .net4.5.2 application which depends on a c++\cli wrapper which is included in the VS project by reference. When the winforms application, that is built using Any CPU, is launched a assembly resolver is used to point out the correct platform dll for the reference and Assembly.Load(ed) in the platform specific folders in the root of the application folder i.e. \x64 or \x86. </p>

<p>This c++\cli is now built using the v140 platform toolset which depends on the Universal CRT dll:s. Looking here <a href="https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/vcblog/2015/03/03/introducing-the-universal-crt/" rel="nofollow">https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/vcblog/2015/03/03/introducing-the-universal-crt/</a> I was able to locate the necessary dll:s (41 * 2 of them) and I did what I was told to copy them inside the \x86 and \x64 folders. Now since the change to v140 platform my application does not start anymore and ProcessMonitor file operations tell me the following:</p>

<pre><code>SUCCESS C:\MyApp\x64\TheCLIWrapper.x64.dll
SUCCESS C:\MyApp\x64\ADependency.dll
SUCCESS C:\MyApp\x64\msvcp140.dll
SUCCESS C:\MyApp\x64\vcruntime140.dll
SUCCESS C:\MyApp\x64\api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1-0.dll
NAME NOT FOUND C:\MyApp\ucrtbase.dll
</code></pre>

<p>How is this even possible if before assembly resolving my c++\cli wrapper I explicitly set the dll directory (using SetDllDirectory) to the C:\MyApp\x64 folder? By this I mean why is the loading process looking in C:\MyApp for the ucrtbase.dll?</p>

<p>Naturally, if all the 41 dlls of a specific platform are copied to the root C:\MyApp\ folder it works but this is not an option for me, nor is the installation of c++ runtime executable on the clients running the application.</p>

<p>Does anyone have an idea or any tips on how to solve this deployment problem?</p>