[tor-bugs] #32327 [Applications/Tor Browser]: apt-win-crt*dll files are missing on some Windows 8 and Windows 7 systems (was: firefox.exe problem)

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#32327: apt-win-crt*dll files are missing on some Windows 8 and Windows 7 systems
--------------------------------------------+--------------------------
 Reporter:  bob121                          |          Owner:  tbb-team
     Type:  defect                          |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Medium                          |      Milestone:
Component:  Applications/Tor Browser        |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                          |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  tbb-9.0-issues, tbb-regression  |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                                  |         Points:
 Reviewer:                                  |        Sponsor:
--------------------------------------------+--------------------------
Changes (by gk):

 * owner:  (none) => tbb-team
 * keywords:   => tbb-9.0-issues, tbb-regression
 * component:  - Select a component => Applications/Tor Browser


Comment:

 We got reports that Tor Browser is not starting on some Windows 7 and
 Windows 8 computers because of some api*dll files missing. The reason for
 that is that we are now using mingw-w64/clang as our compiler depending on
 the `ucrt` runtime which Microsoft shipped as an
 [https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2999226/update-for-universal-c
 -runtime-in-windows update to their users years ago].

 Users hitting this bug don't have this update installed for whatever
 reason.

 One thing we could do is just bundle yet another set of .dlls
 [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1325897 like Mozilla is
 doing]. The additional size is not that big (1-2 MiB), however, we would
 need to take care of keeping those .dlls up-to-date ourselves which was
 already a burden in the past when we shipped the `msvcr100.dll` as runtime
 dependency because older systems did not have that one.

 Another thing we could do is tell users to have their Windows system up-
 to-date and install the ucrt update, too. I suspect the majority of users
 hitting the issue in this ticket are actually not getting any security
 update whatsoever anymore which makes their Windows setup essentially EOL
 and not a thing we should support.

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/32327#comment:1>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
The Tor Project: anonymity online