Error message when starting anything that uses a :cvb: component

Hi there,

installed Common Vision Blox 13.0 on a new Win7 machine yesterday. Whenever I try to start something that depends on a :cvb: component (management console, tutorial, you name it…) all I get are messages like “the program can’t start because api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1-0.dll is missing from your computer”:
grafik
“Repair” in control panel did not fix anything. :cry:

This is a somewhat insidious problem that started to haunt :cvb: when parts of the product started to be compiled with VC14. Unlike the previously used VC10 runtimes, the VC14 runtimes require the Universal CRT (basically what Microsoft did is split the VC runtime package into an operating system part and a library/SDK part, see for example the article here). The OS part of the Universal CRT is included in Windows 10 but older operating systems by default won’t have that component. There are two ways to install it on a Win8 or Win7 system:

  • Install the KB2999226 update from Microsoft
  • Run the vcredist.exe that matches your operating system (get the Win32 or x64 version directly from Microsoft)

On a computer that has an internet connection Windows Update will usually install KB2999226, and this problem should not occur. If it does on your machine, then doing either of the two things mentioned above should fix the issues you are seeing.

Background: The :cvb: setups for version 12.xx and 13.00 do not include the OS component of the Universal CRT. They have only been linked versus the VC14 runtime Merge Modules and the Universal CRT is not available as a Merge Module and we have noticed too late that this would have been needed for some scenarios. 13.1 and higher will invoke the vcredist.exe installer to work around that issue.

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