Visual Studio 2015 C++ app requires api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1-0.dll on client clients

Question

I've built an application with Visual Studio 2015 Community edition. When some of my users try to run it it they receive the following error:

The program can't start because api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1-0.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.

Clearly this is solved by installing the Update for Universal C Runtime in Windows (KB2999226). I could check for the hotfix during the install script but all of the methods I've found to do this are either too slow or unreliable.

How can I prevent this error from occurring? Can I change my solution so that I don't require this dependency? Am I linking against something I can remove? Can I redistribute the hotfix along with my application?

Edit: In the project properties, the "Target Platform Version" is 8.1 and the "Platform Toolset" is "Visual Studio 2015 (v140)", if that helps at all.

Edit 2: I've tried copying all of the Universal C Runtime Library DLL's to the application directory since Microsoft now allows (but doesn't recommend) local mode installation of the UCRT. There are 41 files in C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Redist\ucrt\DLLs\x64 and api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1-0.dll is one of them. However, now running the application results in this error:

The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142). Click OK to close the application.

I've tried debugging the application with MSVS 2015 but got nowhere. I opened the executable in Dependency Walker and it appears that I'm missing similar DLLs listed in this answer, which says that Dependency Walker is old and this is a red herring.

I tried running the application through Process Monitor (procmon) and there's nothing unusual. The application simply calls "Process Create" on WerFault.exe and then "Thread Exit."

Edit 3: I enabled loader snaps on the executable and got this when running it from cdb, if it helps:

...
00c0:1200 @ 02106250 - LdrpFindOrMapDependency - RETURN: Status: 0x00000000
00c0:1200 @ 02106250 - LdrpFindOrMapDependency - ENTER: DLL name: api-ms-win-core-sysinfo-l1-2-1.dll.
00c0:1200 @ 02106250 - LdrpFindOrMapDependency - INFO: DLL name api-ms-win-core-sysinfo-l1-2-1.dll was redirected to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\kernelbase.dll by SxS.
00c0:1200 @ 02106250 - LdrpFindOrMapDll - ENTER: DLL name: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\kernelbase.dll
00c0:1200 @ 02106250 - LdrpResolveDllName - ENTER: DLL name: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\kernelbase.dll
00c0:1200 @ 02106250 - LdrpResolveDllName - RETURN: Status: 0x00000000
00c0:1200 @ 02106250 - LdrpFindOrMapDll - RETURN: Status: 0x00000000
00c0:1200 @ 02106250 - LdrpFindOrMapDependency - RETURN: Status: 0x00000000
00c0:1200 @ 02106250 - LdrpGetProcedureAddress - INFO: Locating procedure "RtlSetLastWin32Error" by name
00c0:1200 @ 02106250 - LdrpGetProcedureAddress - INFO: Locating procedure "RtlLeaveCriticalSection" by name
00c0:1200 @ 02106250 - LdrpGetProcedureAddress - INFO: Locating procedure "RtlEnterCriticalSection" by name
00c0:1200 @ 02106250 - LdrpGetProcedureAddress - INFO: Locating procedure "RtlInitializeCriticalSection" by name
00c0:1200 @ 02106250 - LdrpGetProcedureAddress - INFO: Locating procedure "RtlDeleteCriticalSection" by name
00c0:1200 @ 02106250 - LdrpGetProcedureAddress - INFO: Locating procedure "RtlQueryPerformanceCounter" by name
00c0:1200 @ 02106250 - LdrpGetProcedureAddress - INFO: Locating procedure "LdrResolveDelayLoadedAPI" by name
00c0:1200 @ 02106250 - LdrpMergeNodes - INFO: Merging a cycle rooted at USER32.dll.
00c0:1200 @ 02106250 - LdrpMergeNodes - INFO: Adding cyclic module GDI32.dll.
(c0.1200): Break instruction exception - code 80000003 (first chance)
*** ERROR: Symbol file could not be found.  Defaulted to export symbols for ntdll.dll -
ntdll!LdrInitShimEngineDynamic+0x330:
00007ffc`d68732e8 cc              int     3
0:000>

Answer 1

You should link statically with the CRT. For a consumer application there are a lot of scenarios which result in particular DLL missing or its configuration botched. I was the installer technical lead for a very popular Windows application (thousands of installs per day) and you would not believe how common misconfigured Windows machines are out there. At the bottom I'll give a short list.

The universal CRT is a good idea but relatively new and it will be a while, (possibly a long while) until it being broken prevents your customers' PC from booting. That should be the threshold: If your customer cannot log in without DLL X then it is ok to depend on it.

Common Weird states:

• MSI installer in progress : Somehow Windows thinks that there is an installation in progress
• COM database inconsistent : The HKCU part of the registry is a rough place
• Missing MSVC crts or pre-release versions in there
• Pre-release versions of Windows : we guess that pre-release Windows are easier to pirate.
• Still in sysprep : The OEM forgot to seal the machine configuration.
• Fonts corrupt: Specially painful if you use DirectWrite
• Overclocked: eventual bit flips in filesystem buffers equal corrupted files.