NovumZ: The what!?
You friend have a lot of trash in your computer!! Do your games run smooth at all?
You obviously have no idea how this works, so I'll shortly explain:
DLL means "dynamic link library". And it works exactly like library: It sits there and requires space, nothing else, as long as nobody needs to look up something.
These libraries contain objects and functions that other programs can use. Take for example a function to write a file on disk. This is by no means trivial, since you have to check for persmissions, check if the file is already there, disk space... and so on. So it would be really silly if every programming team would write their own implementation of "write file to disk" - for every single program.
So Visual C++ offers a library that can do that and that the dev can use. Because the program has to run on your machine too, you also need this library when you want to run the program. One solution is to pack that dll with the installer and put it you're program's folder upon installation - and that's what's often done. The dll is "redistributed", because it's by Microsoft but the dev of some other program puts it on your computer.
But since many programmers use the same dlls in their programs, there's the concept of redistributable packages. Those are installed and registered into windows, which means, every program that needs (i.e.) SaveMyFile.dll can use the one that Windows has, and doesn't need to bring it with them. Only the first program that needs it, has to trigger the installation of the redist-package.
To make a real-life comparison:
Programs are people living in a village. One of them wants to cook something. The hard way would be to learn the recipe by heart - but luckily he can look it up in a book - and he knows the exact page number (from a sticky note). In the first way described, he would have the books needed in his place. So he gets the book, opens the noted page and starts following the instructions.
Another one from the village also wants to cook the same thing - so she also needs the same books in her home.
If a hundred people want to cook this thing this gets pretty inefficient, since the same books are needed in every household.
Enter Redist-Package: in this case the village has a library. If someone needs to look at a recipe, he can simply go there. Much more space in people's places now.
But...
Here comes the versioning. Every single book can come in different editions. Recipes are extended, new ones added, some are axed. So every edition will have a different page layout. Our dumb citizens however, can only navigate the books with their sticky note system (they are programs after all) which contain only the book's title and page number. So if a citizen wants to make pudding, has all the ingredients and stuff, but catches the wrong edition of the book - he'll see the recipe for stew and will get utterly confused -> crash.
That's why the sticky note ALSO has the exact edition of the book needed along with the page number.
So for every citizen, the library needs to hold all the editions of the same books that could be needed.
So, to go back to my computer - I don't have trash, I have the different editions that different programs need. And it doesn't affect my computer's speed at all - much like it doesn't affect my movement speed if my bookshelf is full or empty.
What is effecting computer speed are things that are actually running: background tasks, drivers. A badly written audio driver can really bog a machine down as soon as it plays sound. Background stuff usually runs with low priority, so games aren't that much impeded (although too many of them will make a noticeable difference - and some are not very friendly and eat lots of CPU cycles). What's worse with a lot of background activity is that it will eat RAM, and if you don't have lots of it, this will make a difference.
Stuff like the VC redists however, like I wrote above, have no impact on performance at all. They take up space, yes... but not even that much. Most are about 20 MB. That's not even a dent in today's HDDs.
NovumZ: Aww babies got hurt and start retailating by down repping :D
Truth hurts eh!?
Good luck with your windows. I'm sure you're going for the ride of your life!
Were you talking to me?