October 22nd, 2018
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Why does the Entry Point Not Found error dialog sometimes not include the name of the missing entry point?

A customer observed that sometimes the Entry Point Not Found error dialog does not include the name of the missing entry point.

Usually, it looks like this:

Contoso.exe - Entry Point Not Found
The procedure entry point WidgetStart could not be located in the dynamic link library widget.dll.
OK

But sometimes it looks like this:

Contoso.exe - Entry Point Not Found
The procedure entry point could not be located in the dynamic link library widget.dll.
OK

Why does the error message sometimes leave out the name of the missing entry point?

If the entry point name is longer than 128 characters, then it is omitted from the error message. The most common reason for having a very long function name is that you exported decorated C++ functions, because C++ function decoration can result in very long names.

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Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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