ptx print error message

Question

Dear Friends
I ran into this problem with PTX print: the program cannot start because api-ms-win-core-path-l1-1-0.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this error.
PTXprint has been working for me for years on this same old laptop but has only stopped working recently.
I tried to reinstall the latest version of ptx print but that did not help.

Thanks

Craig Soderberg

Answer 1

PTXprint doesn't rely on many external packages or DLLs other than what is packaged in the installer. So you could try installing an OLDER version of PTXprint to see if that runs successfully - in which case it points the finger to something WE might have done recently. But if none of the older versions work, then it must be a Windows-related issue. Please let me know what you discover. (I wonder if there are any other users still using Windows 7... and if so, you really shouldn't be online with that version!)

Searching online gave me several possible reasons for the error:
1. Missing DLL File: The specific DLL file `api-ms-win-core-path-11-1-0.dll` is not present in your system.
2. Corrupted System Files: The DLL or associated system files might be corrupted.
3. Compatibility Issues: The program might be incompatible with your current version of Windows, leading to missing dependencies.
4. Incorrect Installation: The program may not have installed correctly, skipping some necessary components.

Answer 2

This file is only needed for Windows 7 which went 'out of service' back in 2016. It isn't needed for any later versions of Windows. I suggest therefore that you download it and copy it into the same directory as ptxprint.exe or else into a directory in your path. It sounds like a number of other programs may hit this problem in due course on Win7 (even the upgrader to Win10 needs it!).

As to whether we should ship with it. I think given the context, it is unnecessary for any actively supported OS which is what we aim to support. So, in your case, it is not unreasonable to ask you to add the missing dependencies that are specific to a legacy OS.