What is Dynamic Loading?
Normally, when you link to a DLL via a LIB file (for example, the MFC DLLs), the DLL is loaded when your application starts up. This kind of loading is referred to as implicit linking, because the system takes care of the DLL loading for you – all you have to do is link with the LIB file. Dynamic loading (a.k.a. dynamic linking) means that your application loads a DLL just before you call a function in the DLL. For dynamic loading, you do not use a LIB file. Instead, what you do is call a pair of Win32 API functions (LoadLibrary/GetProcAddress) that load the DLL and then retrieve the address of a function in the DLL. Because you explicitly invoke these APIs, this kind of loading is also referred to as explicit linking.
