I noticed that all my dll files have changed. They all open with Windows Media Player, which I know is wrong. What file type are they supposed to be? And how can I change it?
Also, how can I tell if there is a virus attached to the file? How many dll files are supposed to be on a computer?
Thank you!
Okay so how can I change the file type?
Yea, now what do I change it back to?
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4 responses so far ↓
1 Brad B // Jan 14, 2009
DLL are library files and I would say there is no time when you should actually need to open a DLL file. If someone, website, program, etc asks you to open a DLL file I would be *very* suspicious it might be a virus.
2 Scotteh // Jan 14, 2009
.dll files are files that are used to run Windows, they shouldn't be tampered with and you shouldn't be able to open them using any programs. Usually if there is a weird .dll file it can be a virus designed to manipulate windows xp.
I suggest leaving the .dll files alone, you shouldn't need to use them.
3 projectimgoingin // Jan 14, 2009
Some programs are dependent on (DLLS) Direct Link Libraries to
run properly. Sometimes they do get corrupted or virus infected and
you have to replace them. It isn't as much trouble in Windows XP and
Vista as it was in Windows 98 and Earlier. What you may have done
is created a file association with Windows Media Player.
You right clicked on a DLL file and clicked properties and in the
opens with section you clicked on Windows media player.
You should only do this with Mp3 files or other media files not DLLS.
4 Alex // Jan 14, 2009
DLL stands for Dynamic Link Library. Pretty much all of the applications installed on Windows and Windows itself use one or more dll files. These files contain common functions that applications are using.
These files usually not modifiable and .dll file type should not be associated with any application. Unfortunately extremely smart Microsoft engineers while developing extremely user-friendly Windows forgot to allow user to un-register file type once it's registered. So now you can only change it to open DLL files with some other program, but you cannot change it back to where it was (originally it has no application associated with).
To change association with Windows Media Player open Windows Explorer, go to Tools->Folder Options->File Types (on Vista it's under Control Panel->Default programs-> Associate a file type or protocol…),
scroll down to .dll entry and you can change it from being Media Player type of file to, say, Notepad file (which still makes no sense, but that's the most Microsoft allows to do about it without hacking the registry).
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