Preventing a DLL from loading

Many products use helper DLLs to provide additional functionality to Windows. Examples of such DLLs are shell extensions that augment the functionality provided by the Windows File Open/File Save dialog. Sometimes these DLLs function perfectly in normal situation but cause problems with software tools like Memory Validator.

When such problems occur there is often only one solution – to prevent the shell extension from loading into the program that has the problem.

This tutorial is going to show you how to prevent (or explicitly allow) such third party extensions from loading into Memory Validator.

DLLs loading into Memory Validator

• Open the settings dialog and select UI Global Hooks tab.
• To allow all third party DLLs to load, select the first radio box, Allow all global hooks to load.
• To disallow all third party DLLs to load, select the second radio box, Do not allow all global hooks to load.
• To configure which third party DLLs can load or which third party DLLs are not allowed to load, select the third radio box, Use the list of dlls shown below.
• To add a DLL to the list, click Add DLL… and select the DLL to allow/disallow. When the DLL is shown in the list click on the second column and choose Load or Don’t load from the combo box.
• To remove a DLL from the list, select the DLL in the list then click the Remove button.
• To remove all DLLs from the list, click the Remove All button.
• You can also use the Auto Detect button to ask Memory Validator to try to determine which DLLs are third party hooks and which are not. If Memory Validator adds DLLs to the list that you disagree with you can remove them with the Remove button.
• Click OK to confirm your UI Global Hook selection.

DLLs loading into the target application

To configure which third party DLLs are prevented from loading into the target application you need to add DLLs to the list of DLLs shown.

• To add a DLL to the list, click Add DLL… and select the DLL to allow/disallow. When the DLL is shown in the list click on the second column and choose Load or Don’t load from the combo box.
• To remove a DLL from the list, select the DLL in the list then click the Remove button.
• To remove all DLLs from the list, click the Remove All button.
• You can also use the Auto Detect button to ask Memory Validator to try to determine which DLLs are third party hooks and which are not. If Memory Validator adds DLLs to the list that you disagree with you can remove them with the Remove button.
• Click OK to confirm your Stub Global Hook selection.