How To Download Vulkan-1.dll And Fix The Game Launch Error

When launching some games, users may encounter the error "Code execution cannot proceed because the system did not detect vulkan-1.dll" or "The program cannot start because vulkan-1.dll is missing from the system". computer".

This step-by-step instruction details how to download vulkan-1.dll from the official website or in the driver kit for Windows 11, Windows 10 and 7 to fix the error running games and programs.

Table of Contents

• Vulkan-1.dll as part of the Vulkan runtime libraries in the video card driver package
• How to download the Vulkan Runtime Libraries (VulkanRT) installer separately from the official website

Vulkan-1.dll as part of the Vulkan runtime libraries in the video card driver package

Vulkan-1.dll is one of the files included in the Vulkan Runtime Libraries, libraries that can be used in various games for Windows 11, 10 or Windows 7 (and other platforms) with game engines from Valve and others.

You should not manually download a separate vulkan-1.dll file, copy it to the System32 or SysWOW64 folder and try to register it on your system: this will most likely not solve the problem and it is also not completely safe.

The Vulkan Runtime Libraries package is supplied and installed by default with the video card drivers. If the video card drivers were automatically installed by the system, I recommend manually downloading the latest drivers from NVIDIA GeForce, AMD Radeon, and Intel official websites and installing them. After the installation and restart of the computer, the problem should be solved: the vulkan-1.dll files, both x64 and 32-bit, will be installed in the necessary locations on your computer or laptop.

Previously (in older versions of drivers) after installation Vulkan Run Time Libraries appeared in the list of installed programs in Windows, in newer versions of drivers it does not. However, you can easily check for Vulkan libraries: press Win+R, type vulkaninfo and press Enter. If a window opens with service information about Vulkan versions and supported features, it means that the necessary DLLs are present.

Please note: If you have a very old video card, and only old versions of the drivers are available, Vulkan may not be present. You can see a list of video cards and driver versions in which vulkan-1.dll and other components are present:

Read More: Troubleshooting Windows Audio Service Start Error

How to download the Vulkan Runtime Libraries (VulkanRT) installer separately from the official website

If the above method does not suit you for some reason, you can download vulkan-1.dll as part of the Vulkan runtime libraries from the developer's official website:

1. Go to the official Vulkan download site – https://vulkan.lunarg.com/sdk/home
2. Under "Windows" click on "Latest Runtime/ZIP" or the installation file in Runtime.
3. Download the installation file (Runtime Installer) and run the installation.

Once the Vulkan runtime libraries are installed (you may need to restart your computer), the vulkan-1.dll file will be located in the C:\Windows\System32 and C:\Windows\SysWOW64 folders and will be registered correctly on Windows. Please note that Vulkan may not be supported or have limited support on very old video cards.

In case it is also of interest: How to fix Windows 10 startup error after update