Specifying DLLs to Delay Load

You can specify which DLLs to delay load with the /delayload:dllname linker option. If you do not plan to use your own version of a helper function, you must also link your program with delayimp.lib (for desktop applications) or dloadhelper.lib (for store apps).

The following is a simple example of delay loading a DLL:

// cl t.cpp user32.lib delayimp.lib  /link /DELAYLOAD:user32.dll
#include <windows.h>
// uncomment these lines to remove .libs from command line
// #pragma comment(lib, "delayimp")
// #pragma comment(lib, "user32")

int main() {
   // user32.dll will load at this point
   MessageBox(NULL, "Hello", "Hello", MB_OK);
}

Build the DEBUG version of the project. Step through the code using the debugger and you will notice that user32.dll is loaded only when you make the call to MessageBox.

See Also

Concepts

Linker Support for Delay-Loaded DLLs