hmmmmm
Sorry, forgot to tell ya that quite often its more than one .dll missing. Most likely the program was intentionally uninstalled / partially uninstalled or a corrupted upgrade was tried to take out that many .dlls in a row.
Device attached to system - possible causes / thoughts....
First - can you bypass the error, or does it shut down opening sequence. If you can bypass it - look at any peripheral options like scanners in the program that may not be there anymore.
Second - when the ex employee worked there was the system hooked up to a scanner / zip drive / printer / monitor or something else that is no longer there.. Maybe a digitizing tablet? These periperhals are often reffered to as devices, it is possible we can track down the reg lines to delete the references.
Copies of software - from my last experience with this problem (about 5-7 yrs ago) are legal if they are used expressely for the purpose of reinstalling a legal version of that software. I routinely copy all my CD's in case the original gets mucked up. My ad-hoc from the hip legal advice aside if I had unethical thoughts I would probably locate someone with a copy of the software - or a 12 yr old that has Kazzaa to get me one. You can even try the software provider site. They may have updates and upgrades that will patch over your incomplete version restoring it to the fully functioning version you used to have.
BTW - If anyone has basic pc questions / OS / graphic program questions etc - I'm happy to try and help or point you in a direction. I am trying to rack up cosmic credit plans for the flood of questions im going to be asking on some specialized home brew cnc / plotter systems I need to build.
Worry about success, failure takes care of itself.