pgAdmin 1.12.2 would not start any more. Missing dlls (?). Re-installing v1.10.2 seems to have fixed v.1.12.2

Hi!

I can't tell what triggered it for sure, but pgAdmin 1.12.2 would not start any more on Windows XP Professional.
Maybe it was triggered by installing "Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable".
Maybe it was triggered by uninstalling pgAdmin 1.10.2. (!).

We have had similar bug reports with 1.12.1:
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgadmin-support/2010-10/msg00148.php

I had a similar problem two years ago on Windows XP Home with pgAdmin 1.10.2
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgadmin-hackers/2010-04/msg00002.php

Now it happened again. pgAdmin wouldn't start and kept saying:
/This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem/
(Well, actually i got the German version: /Diese Anwendung konnte nicht gestartet werden, weil die Anwendungskonfiguration nicht korrekt ist .../)

Uninstalling and re-installing v1.12.2 did not help.

So I used the dependency walker that Guillaume had introduced me to last time (see link above) and found 4 missing DLLs.
MSVCP90.DLL
MSVCR90.DLL
IESHIMS.DLL
WER.DLL

Message reads:
/ Error: The Side-by-Side configuration information in "c:\programme\pgadmin\1.12\PGADMIN3.EXE" contains errors.
Diese Anwendung konnte nicht gestartet werden, weil die Anwenungskonfiguration nicht korrekt ist. Zur Problembehebung sollten Sie die Anwendung
neu installieren (14001).
Warning: At least one delay-load dependency module was not found.
Warning: At least one module has an unresolved import due to a missing export function in a delay-load dependent module.
/
I found the first two on my hard disc an copied them into the pgadmin directory which fixed the problem.
The other two were not present on this system.

After downloading from http://www.dll-files.com/
http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?wer
http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?ieshims
I extracted both files and put them in the pgadmin dierectory (where pgadmi3.exe lies).

Still no luck. Now, dependency walker now showed another dll missing:
NCRYPT.DLL
Still no luck. Now, dependency walker now showed another dll missing:
BCRYPT.DLL

No more missing dlls, but pgadmin still would not start. Dependency walker still complained about missing external function in a couple of DLLs.
So, I deleted all those dlls again. Wasn't happy about installing DLLs form insecure sources to begin with ...

Then I tried a few more things:
- uninstall and re-install "Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable"
- uninstall "Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable" and install "Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable"
- uninstall "Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable" and install "Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable" (!)
No dice.

There is lots of related news in the net. Like
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2465111/dependency-walker-reports-ieshims-dll-and-wer-dll-missing

So, I gave up and started to write up this bug report. Then I tried one more thing:
I additionally installed pgAdmin v1.10.2 which, as a pleasant surprise, started right away. I worked for half an hour with it, until a crash reminded
me, why I prefer v1.12.

THEN I tried starting v1.12.2 once more. And it worked! Not sure, why. But there it is. What seems to have done the trick is re-installing the old
version v1.10.2. I am confused.

I still get identical warnings from dependency walker for pgAdmin v1.12.2 and v1.10.2:
/ Warning: At least one delay-load dependency module was not found.
Warning: At least one module has an unresolved import due to a missing export function in a delay-load dependent module./
These DLLs are missing in both cases, but apparently useless anyway:
IESHIMS.DLL
WER.DLL
And
c:\windows\system32\MPR.DLL
seems to be missing an external function: WNetRestoreConnectionA

Interestingly, v1.12.2 now uses this module:
c:\windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft.vc90.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_9.0.30729.1_x-ww_6f74963e\MSVCP90.DLL
which was present the whole time! Only before MSVCP90.DLL was declared missing by the dependency walker.

Hopefully, this is of some use to somebody ...

Regards
Erwin