Editing DLL hell (section)

===Portable applications===
Depending on the application architecture and runtime environment, [[portable applications]] may be an effective way to reduce some DLL problems, since every program bundles its own private copies of any DLLs it requires.<ref name="endofdllhell"/>  The mechanism relies on applications not fully qualifying the paths to dependent DLLs when loading them, and the operating system searching the executable directory before any shared location.<ref name="sharedlibpolicy"/>  However this technique can also be exploited by malware,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2389418|title=Secure loading of libraries to prevent DLL preloading attacks|publisher=Microsoft|access-date=16 Feb 2013}}</ref> and the increased flexibility may also come at the expense of security if the private DLLs are not kept up to date with security patches in the same way that the shared ones are.

[[Application virtualization]] can also allow applications to run in a "bubble", which avoids installing DLL files directly into the operating system.