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