Problem: When starting up computer or launching a particular application, the following error message or a similar may appear: "missing shdocvw.dll" or "Shdocvw.dll Could Not Be Found in the Specified Path".

This computer problem is a common one and happens to a number of users, so here is a bit of information as to how to solve it. The shdocvw.dll file is a 32-bit dll, and it is a core component of the Internet Explorer browser. Since Internet Explorer is tightly integrated with Windows, the shdocvw.dll file is usually protected by the operating system through the internal file protection system - and therefore, any attempts to replace the file or delete it, may fail.

Downloading the shlwapi.dll file from the Internet and placing it on your computer is not recommended; this is supposed to fail in most cases. The reason is that the shdocvw.dll file is provided in a large number of different versions, and there are multiple versions even for the same Internet Explorer version, and therefore it is highly unlikely that you may actually come accross the exact Shdocvw.dll file version your browser needs. Therefore, do not try something like that.

There are two ways to fix Shdocvw.dll errors and here they are:

1) You may download the whole Internet Explorer package from the Microsoft.com website and install it on your computer; this will definitely fix shdocvw.dll errors for you. Make sure you are downloading the right version of Internet Explorer, so it is compatible with your operating system version. IF you already have a version of Internet Explorer installed (and in most cases you do), then instead of downloading the whole package, you may want to use their online installer which will only replace or add the needed files, as this will save a lot of download time for you.

2) Visit the Windows Update website, and thorugh the update process, get the latest version for your shdocvw.dll file. The Windows Update website contains software that is able to detect missing or corrupted dll files on your computer, and it should be able to assist you with this problem.

Even if you are using an older Win9x operating system, you can still solve shdocvw.dll errors by visiting the Microsoft.com website and downloading the latest Internet Explorer version available for your operating system. For your convenience, a download link for Internet Explorer for Win9X operating system is provided right here.