Difference between dll and exe

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I want to know the exact difference between the dll and exe file

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The major exact difference between DLL and EXE that DLL hasn t got an entry point and EXE does  If you are familiar with c   you can see that build EXE has main   entry function and DLL doesn t

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The difference is that an EXE has an entry point  a  main  method that will run on execution   The code within a DLL needs to be called from another application

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I don t know why everybody is answering this question in context of  NET  The question was a general one and didn t mention  NET anywhere    Well  the major differences are   EXE   An exe always runs in its own address space i e   It is a separate process  The purpose of an EXE is to launch a separate application of its own    DLL   A dll always needs a host exe to run  i e   it can never run in its own address space  The purpose of a DLL is to have a collection of methods classes which can be re-used from some other application  DLL is Microsoft s implementation of a shared library    The file format of DLL and exe is essentially the same  Windows recognizes the difference between DLL and EXE through PE Header in the file  For details of PE Header  You can have a look at this Article on MSDN

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An exe is an executible program whereas A DLL is a file that can be loaded and executed by programs dynamically

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This answer was a little more detailed than I thought but read it through   DLL  In most cases  a DLL file is a library  There are a couple of types of libraries  dynamic and static - read about the difference   DLL stands for dynamic link library which tells us that it s a part of the program but not the whole thing  It s made of reusable software components  library  which  you could use for more than a single program  Bear in mind that it s always possible to use the library source code in many applications using copy-paste  but the idea of a DLL Static Library is that you could update the code of a library and at the same time update all the applications using it - without compiling    For example  Imagine you re creating a Windows GUI component like a Button  In most cases you d want to re-use the code you ve written because it s a complex but a common component - You want many applications to use it but you don t want to give them the source code You can t copy-paste the code for the button in every program  so you decide you want to create a DL-Library   DLL     This  button  library is required by EXEcutables to run  and without it they will not run because they don t know how to create the button  only how to talk to it   Likewise  a DLL cannot be executed - run  because it s only a part of the program but doesn t have the information required to create a  process     EXE  An executable is the program  It knows how to create a process and how to talk to the DLL  It needs the DLL to create a button  and without it the application doesn t run - ERROR   hope this  helps

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EXE    It s a executable file When loading an executable  no export is called  but only the module entry point  When a system launches new executable  a new process is created The entry thread is called in context of main thread of that process    DLL    It s a Dynamic Link Library There are multiple exported symbols  The system loads a DLL into the context of an existing process    For More Details  http   www c-sharpcorner com Interviews Answer Answers aspxQuestionId 1431 amp MajorCategoryId 1 amp MinorCategoryId 1 http   wiki answers com Q What is the difference between an EXE and a DLL  Reference  http   www dotnetspider com forum 34260-What-difference-between-dll-exe aspx

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The  exe is the program  The  dll is a library that a  exe  or another  dll  may call into   What sakthivignesh says can be true in that one  exe can use another as if it were a library  and this is done  for example  with some COM components  In this case  the  slave   exe is a separate program  strictly speaking  a separate process - perhaps running on a separate machine   but one that accepts and handles requests from other programs components whatever   However  if you just pick a random  exe and  dll from a folder in your Program Files  odds are that COM isn t relevant - they are just a program and its dynamically-linked libraries   Using Win32 APIs  a program can load and use a DLL using the LoadLibrary and GetProcAddress API functions  IIRC  There were similar functions in Win16   COM is in many ways an evolution of the DLL idea  originally concieved as the basis for OLE2  whereas  NET is the descendant of COM  DLLs have been around since Windows 1  IIRC  They were originally a way of sharing binary code  particularly system APIs  between multiple running programs in order to minimise memory use

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For those looking a concise answer   If an assembly is compiled as a class library and provides types for other assemblies to use  then it has the ifle extension  dll  dynamic link library   and it cannot be executed standalone   Likewise  if an assembly is compiled as an application  then it has the file extension  exe  executable  and can be executed standalone  Before  NET Core 3 0  console apps were compiled to  dll fles and had to be executed by the dotnet run command or a host executable  - Source

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Difference in DLL and EXE   1  DLL is an In-Process Component which means running in the same memory space as the client process  EXE is an Out-Process Component which means it runs in its own separate memory space   2  The DLL contains functions and procedures that other programs can use  promotes reuability  while EXE cannot be shared with other programs   3  DLL cannot be directly executed as they re designed to be loaded and run by other programs  EXE is a program that is executed directly

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Two things  the extension and the header flag stored in the file   Both files are PE files   Both contain the exact same layout   A DLL is a library and therefore can not be executed   If you try to run it you ll get an error about a missing entry point   An EXE is a program that can be executed   It has an entry point   A flag inside the PE header indicates which file type it is  irrelevant of file extension    The PE header has a field where the entry point for the program resides   In DLLs it isn t used  or at least not as an entry point     One minor difference is that in most cases DLLs have an export section where symbols are exported   EXEs should never have an export section since they aren t libraries but nothing prevents that from happening   The Win32 loader doesn t care either way    Other than that they are identical   So  in summary  EXEs are executable programs while DLLs are libraries loaded into a process and contain some sort of useful functionality like security  database access or something

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There are a few more differences regarding the structure you could mention    Both DLL and EXE share the same file structure - Portable Executable  or PE  To differentiate between the two  one can look in the Characteristics member of IMAGE FILE HEADER inside IMAGE NT HEADERS  For a DLL  it has the IMAGE FILE DLL  0x2000  flag turned on  For a EXE it s the IMAGE FILE EXECUTABLE IMAGE  0x2  flag  PE files consist of some headers and a number of sections  There s usually a section for code  a section for data  a section listing imported functions and a section for resources  Some sections may contain more than one thing  The header also describes a list of data directories that are located in the sections  Those data directories are what enables Windows to find what it needs in the PE  But one type of data directory that an EXE will never have  unless you re building a frankenstein EXE  is the export directory  This is where DLL files have a list of functions they export and can be used by other EXE or DLL files  On the other side  each DLL and EXE has an import directory where it lists the functions and DLL files it requires to run  Also in the PE headers  IMAGE OPTIONAL HEADER  is the ImageBase member  It specifies the virtual address at which the PE assumes it will be loaded  If it is loaded at another address  some pointers could point to the wrong memory  As EXE files are amongst the first to be loaded into their new address space  the Windows loader can assure a constant load address and that s usually 0x00400000  That luxury doesn t exist for a DLL  Two DLL files loaded into the same process can request the same address  This is why a DLL has another data directory called Base Relocation Directory that usually resides in its own section -  reloc  This directory contains a list of places in the DLL that need to be rebased patched so they ll point to the right memory  Most EXE files don t have this directory  but some old compilers do generate them    You can read more on this topic   MSDN

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Dll v s Exe  1 DLL file is a dynamic link library which can be used in exe files and  other dll files    EXE file is a executable file which runs in a separate  process which is managed by OS   2 DLLs are not directly executable   They are separate files containing functions that can be called by programs and other DLLs to perform computations and functions   An EXE is a program that can be executed   Ex  Windows program  3 Reusability DLL  They can be reused for some other application  As long as the coder knows the names and parameters of the functions and procedures in the DLL file   EXE  Only for specific purpose    4 A DLL would share the same process and memory space of the calling application while an  EXE creates its separate process and memory space   5 Uses DLL  You want many applications to use it but you don t want to give them the source code You can t copy-paste the code for the button in every program  so you decide you want to create a DL-Library  DLL    EXE  When we work with project templates like Windows Forms Applications  Console Applications  WPF Applications and Windows Services they generate an exe assembly when compiled   6 Similarities   Both DLL and EXE are binary files have a complex nested structure defined by the Portable Executable format  and they are not intended to be editable by users

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Both DLL and EXE are Portable Executable PE  Formats  A Dynamic-link library  DLL  is a library and therefore can not be executed directly  If you try to run it you will get an error about a missing entry point  It needs an entry point  main function  to get executed  that entry point can be any application or exe  DLL binding occurs at run-time  That is why its called  Dynamic Link  library   An Executable  EXE  is a program that can be executed  It has its own entry point  A flag inside the PE header indicates which type of file it is  irrelevant of file extension   The PE header has a field where the entry point for the program resides  In DLLs it isn t used  or at least not as an entry point      There are many software available to check header information  The only difference causing both to work differently is the bit in header as shown in below diagram         EXE file has only single main entry means it is isolated application  when a system launches exe  a new process is created while DLLs have many entry points so when application use it no new process started  DLL can be reused and versioned  DLL reduces storage space as different programs can use the same dll

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exe and dll are the compiled version of c  code which are also called as assemblies      exe is a stand alone executable file  which means it can executed directly      dll is a reusable component which cannot be executed directly and it requires other programs to execute it

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An EXE is visible to the system as a regular Win32 executable  Its entry point refers to a small loader which initializes the  NET runtime and tells it to load and execute the assembly contained in the EXE  A DLL is visible to the system as a Win32 DLL but most likely without any entry points  The  NET runtime stores information about the contained assembly in its own header      dll is a collection of reusable   functions where as an  exe is an   executable which may call these   functions

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