Q249235: DOC: AfxLoadLibrary() Documentation is not Clear on Usage

Article: Q249235
Product(s): Microsoft C Compiler
Version(s): winnt:4.2,5.0,6.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbdocfix kbDLL kbMFC kbVC500bug kbVC600bug kbGrpDSMFCATL
Last Modified: 07-MAY-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- The Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) 
- Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Enterprise Edition, versions 4.2, 5.0, 6.0 
- Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Professional Edition, versions 4.2, 5.0, 6.0 
- Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Learning Edition, version 6.0 
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SUMMARY
=======

The MSDN documentation for AfxLoadLibrary indicates that you need to use
AfxLoadLibrary if your MFC application uses multiple threads; this is not
totally correct.

MORE INFORMATION
================

The only time you need to use AfxLoadLibrary is if you application is
multithreaded and you are dynamically loading an MFC extension DLL. To load and
unload regular DLLs you can use the Win32 functions LoadLibrary and FreeLibrary.
Only when you are loading and unloading MFC extension DLLs in a multithreaded
application do you need to use AfxLoadLibrary and AfxFreeLibrary.

If you use AfxLoadLibrary in your application and link statically to MFC then you
will get a complier error:

  error C2065: 'AfxLoadLibrary' : undeclared identifier

This is because the header file for AfxLoadLibrary, Afxdll_.h, is only included
if MFC is linked to the application as a DLL. This is by design because you have
to link to the DLL version of MFC to use or create extension DLLs.

Additional query words:

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Keywords          : kbdocfix kbDLL kbMFC kbVC500bug kbVC600bug kbGrpDSMFCATL 
Technology        : kbVCsearch kbAudDeveloper kbMFC kbVC420 kbVC500 kbVC600 kbVC32bitSearch kbVC500Search
Version           : winnt:4.2,5.0,6.0
Issue type        : kbbug
Solution Type     : kbpending

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