Bill Gates.dat is considered a type of Dynamic Link Library (DLL) file. Dynamic Link Library files, like Bill Gates.dat, are essentially a "guide book" that stores information and instructions for executable (EXE) files - like sapisvr.exe - to follow. These files were created so that multiple programs (eg. Windows) could share the same Bill Gates.dat file, saving valuable memory allocation, therefore making your computer run more efficiently.
Unfortunately, what makes DLL files so convenient and efficient, also makes them extremely vulnerable to problems. If something happens to a shared DAT file, either it goes missing or gets corrupted in some way, it can generate a "runtime" error message. Runtime is pretty self-explanatory; it means that these errors are triggered when Bill Gates.dat is attempted to be loaded either when Windows is starting up, or in some cases already running. Some of the most common Bill Gates.dat errors include:
- Access Violation at address - Bill Gates.dat.
- Bill Gates.dat could not be found.
- Cannot find C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\Bill Gates.dat.
- Cannot register Bill Gates.dat.
- Cannot start Windows. A required component is missing: Bill Gates.dat. Please install Windows again.
- Failed to load Bill Gates.dat.
- The application has failed to start because Bill Gates.dat was not found.
- The file Bill Gates.dat is missing or corrupt.
- This application failed to start because Bill Gates.dat was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.
Your Bill Gates.dat file could be missing due to accidental deletion, uninstalled as a shared file of another program (shared with Windows), or deleted by a malware infection. Furthermore, Bill Gates.dat file corruption could be caused from a power outage when loading Windows, system crash while loading Bill Gates.dat, bad sectors on your storage media (usually your primary hard drive), or quite commonly, a malware infection. Thus, it's critical to make sure your anti-virus is kept up-to-date and scanning regularly.