[SOLVED] How do I deliver OpenAL32.dll with my application without requiring OpenAL installation on the client machine?

How do I deliver OpenAL32.dll with my application without requiring OpenAL installation on the client machine?

I have a 32-bit C++ Windows application using the OpenAL library. I am using the official OpenAL setup to install the required DLL file, but when I publish my application, I would like to find a way to deliver it without requiring the user to install OpenAL seperately like I did.

With other DLL files, I simply add them to my project, but with OpenAL I seemed to get issues. Is this possible? And if so, how?

Solution

Apparently, I mixed up the System32 and SysWow64 folders in Windows.

It should be the other way around!

System32 on 64-bit Windows contains 64-bit .dll files
SysWow64 on 64-bit Windows contains 32-bit .dll files

For reference: https://www.howtogeek.com/326509/whats-the-difference-between-the-system32-and-syswow64-folders-in-windows/

What I did:

So I installed OpenAL from the official installation source. This installer copies the OpenAL32.dll files into the System32 and SysWow64 folders.

As my application is 32-bit I needed to copy OpenAL32.dll from SysWow64 folder into my executable directory. Once I uninstalled OpenAL (which removed these .dll files from my Windows System32 and SysWow64 folders, it worked with the .dll file accompanied with my executable file.