With explicit linking, applications must make a function call to explicitly load the DLL at run time. To explicitly link to a DLL, an application must:

Call LoadLibrary (or a similar function) to load the DLL and obtain a module handle.
Call GetProcAddress to obtain a function pointer to each exported function that the application wants to call. Because applications are calling the DLL's functions through a pointer, the compiler does not generate external references, so there is no need to link with an import library.
Call FreeLibrary when done with the DLL.

For example:

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typedef UINT (CALLBACK* LPFNDLLFUNC1)(DWORD,UINT); ... HINSTANCE hDLL; // Handle to DLL LPFNDLLFUNC1 lpfnDllFunc1; // Function pointer DWORD dwParam1; UINT uParam2, uReturnVal; hDLL = LoadLibrary("MyDLL"); if (hDLL != NULL) { lpfnDllFunc1 = (LPFNDLLFUNC1)GetProcAddress(hDLL, "DLLFunc1"); if (!lpfnDllFunc1) { // handle the error FreeLibrary(hDLL); return SOME_ERROR_CODE; } else { // call the function uReturnVal = lpfnDllFunc1(dwParam1, uParam2); } }

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typedef UINT (CALLBACK* LPFNDLLFUNC1)(DWORD,UINT);
...

HINSTANCE hDLL;               // Handle to DLL
LPFNDLLFUNC1 lpfnDllFunc1;    // Function pointer
DWORD dwParam1;
UINT  uParam2, uReturnVal;

hDLL = LoadLibrary("MyDLL");
if (hDLL != NULL)
{
   lpfnDllFunc1 = (LPFNDLLFUNC1)GetProcAddress(hDLL,
                                           "DLLFunc1");
   if (!lpfnDllFunc1)
   {
      // handle the error
      FreeLibrary(hDLL);       
      return SOME_ERROR_CODE;
   }
   else
   {
      // call the function
      uReturnVal = lpfnDllFunc1(dwParam1, uParam2);
   }
}

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