skin.dat is considered a type of Dynamic Link Library (DLL) file. Dynamic Link Library files, like skin.dat, are essentially a "guide book" that stores information and instructions for executable (EXE) files - like MpSigStub.exe - to follow. These files were created so that multiple programs (eg. Bandicam Screen Recorder) could share the same skin.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 skin.dat is attempted to be loaded either when Bandicam Screen Recorder is starting up, or in some cases already running. Some of the most common skin.dat errors include:
- Access Violation at address - skin.dat.
- skin.dat could not be found.
- Cannot find C:\Program Files (x86)\Bandicam\data\skin.dat.
- Cannot register skin.dat.
- Cannot start Bandicam Screen Recorder. A required component is missing: skin.dat. Please install Bandicam Screen Recorder again.
- Failed to load skin.dat.
- The application has failed to start because skin.dat was not found.
- The file skin.dat is missing or corrupt.
- This application failed to start because skin.dat was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.
Your skin.dat file could be missing due to accidental deletion, uninstalled as a shared file of another program (shared with Bandicam Screen Recorder), or deleted by a malware infection. Furthermore, skin.dat file corruption could be caused from a power outage when loading Bandicam Screen Recorder, system crash while loading skin.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.