Specifying DLLs to Delay Load
The latest version of this topic can be found at Specifying DLLs to Delay Load.
You can specify which DLLs to delay load with the /delayload:dllname linker option. If you do not plan to use your own version of a helper function, you must also link your program with delayimp.lib (for desktop applications) or dloadhelper.lib (for store apps).
The following is a simple example of delay loading a DLL:
// cl t.cpp user32.lib delayimp.lib /link /DELAYLOAD:user32.dll
#include <windows.h>
// uncomment these lines to remove .libs from command line
// #pragma comment(lib, "delayimp")
// #pragma comment(lib, "user32")
int main() {
// user32.dll will load at this point
MessageBox(NULL, "Hello", "Hello", MB_OK);
}
Build the DEBUG version of the project. Step through the code using the debugger and you will notice that user32.dll is loaded only when you make the call to MessageBox.