Managing the Runtimes Folder in IronPDF

Curtis Chau

Updated: August 2, 2026

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IronPDF requires the runtimes folder to be included in a project/deployment.

Failure to include this folder will throw the following exceptions:

• Exception Message: "Failed to locate native library at path 'C:\path-to\your-app\chrome_elf.dll'"

Recommended:

1. Deploy using the Publishing Wizard within Visual Studio. Once the publishing process is completed, check the publish profile and ensure that the target runtime is Portable. This should be the case as Visual Studio will create a publish profile with Framework-dependent as the Deployment mode and Portable as the target runtime by default. (Everything in the runtimes folder will be automatically included in the publish profile).
   Learn more about the Visual Studio Deployment mode here.
2. If you are unable to use Visual Studio to manage your deployment, manually copy the runtimes folders from a development machine into the bin folder on your production machine.

For users with multiple projects who want to avoid requiring multiple runtimes folders:

• Use the Windows installer to install a single IronPdf.dll that you can reference for all of your projects.
• Consider installing IronPDF in a separate PDF rendering microservice and call from individual projects.

Curtis Chau

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Technical Writer

Curtis Chau holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science (Carleton University) and specializes in front-end development with expertise in Node.js, TypeScript, JavaScript, and React. Passionate about crafting intuitive and aesthetically pleasing user interfaces, Curtis enjoys working with modern frameworks and creating well-structured, visually appealing manuals.

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