Cannot run release build on a PC without visual studio

Question

The title pretty much says it all.

I am learning C++ at the moment and decided to try to make a game. My friend who also wants to learn C++, but does not have VS installed tried to run it, and it crashed on start up.

It was fine when I ran it from outside VS, and I sent it to him in a ZIP file with all the DLLs and in a release build. Unsure why this is happening, anyone have any ideas?

Here is the code, its fairly badly written and the readability is poor (Sorry.)

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <SFML/Graphics.hpp>
#define _WIN32_WINNT 0x0500
#include <windows.h>
#include <iostream>

int main()
{
    HWND hWnd = GetConsoleWindow();
    ShowWindow(hWnd, SW_HIDE);

    bool gameover(1);

    sf::RenderWindow window(sf::VideoMode(240, 500), "Hangman but not very good.");
    sf::Text text;
    sf::Font font;
    sf::Sprite sprite;
    sf::Texture texture;

    texture.loadFromFile("0.png");

    sprite.setTexture(texture);

    char uInput[11] = {0};
    char displayed[11] = {0};
    bool setup = false;
    int charCount(0);
    int iii(0);
    bool correct(0);
    long long wrongGuesses(0);
    int wordlength(0);
    long long gameoverCounter(0);
    char currentGuess = 0;
    bool bypass = true;
    char pngC = '1';
    char IOarray[] = "x.png";
    bool firstSetup = true;
    int correctCounter = 0;

    font.loadFromFile("Xefus.ttf");
    text.setColor(sf::Color::Yellow);
    text.setCharacterSize(24);
    text.setFont(font);
    text.setString("Please enter the word to guess, press enter to stop");

    while(window.isOpen())
    {
        sf::Event event;
        while(gameover)
        {
            while(window.pollEvent(event))
            {
                if(event.type == sf::Event::Closed)
                    window.close();

                if(event.type == sf::Event::TextEntered)
                {
                    bypass = true;

                    if(iii < 10 && !setup)
                        if(event.text.unicode < 128 && event.text.unicode > 96)
                        {
                            uInput[iii] = static_cast<char>(event.text.unicode);
                            ++iii;
                            ++wordlength;
                        }

                    {
                        for(int i = 0; i < wordlength; ++i)
                            if(event.text.unicode == uInput[i] && !firstSetup)
                            {
                                displayed[i] = uInput[i];
                                bypass = false;
                                ++correctCounter;
                            }
                            else if(bypass = true)
                                ++wrongGuesses;
                    }
                }

                if(sf::Keyboard::isKeyPressed(sf::Keyboard::Return))
                    setup = true;

                if(sf::Keyboard::isKeyPressed(sf::Keyboard::BackSpace))
                {
                    uInput[iii] = 0;
                    iii -= 1;
                }
            }

            if(!setup)
            {
                text.setString(uInput);
                displayed[wordlength - 1] = ('*');
                setup = false;
            }
            else
            {
                text.setString(displayed);
                bypass = false;

                if(firstSetup)
                {
                    firstSetup = false;
                    gameoverCounter = 0;
                    wrongGuesses = 0;
                    correctCounter = 0;
                }

                if(wrongGuesses >= wordlength)
                {
                    ++gameoverCounter;
                    wrongGuesses = 0;
                    IOarray[0] = static_cast<char>(gameoverCounter + 48);

                    texture.loadFromFile(IOarray);
                }

                if(gameoverCounter >= 9)
                {
                    return 0;
                    window.clear();
                    window.draw(sprite);
                    window.draw(text);
                    window.display();
                }

                if(correctCounter >= wordlength)
                {
                    return 0;
                    window.clear();
                    window.draw(sprite);
                    window.draw(text);
                    window.display();
                }

                wrongGuesses = 0;
            }

            window.clear();
            window.draw(sprite);
            window.draw(text);
            window.display();
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

One of the reasons for this type of problem is missing dlls. So make sure you have all dependent dlls available on the system.

One common mistake that we do while copying the dependent libraries is that we forget to copy c++ run time dlls which is required to run any C++ application. This library is installed with the visual studio, that is why the application is running on your system but not on your friend's.

C++ run time libraries are: msvcr, msvcrt, msvcp

Also you can use Dependency Walker software to check for any other missing dependencies.

Hope it helps

Answer 2

Vikash is right, this is a case of missing runtime libraries. What you need is to install the right Redistributable package in your target computer.

Google and download the appropriate version for your application:

"Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio YYYY" where YYYY is the year of your Visual Studio.

Once downloaded, install this on your target computer then run your application.

Andrew