It's an .exe file whichever version. I've tried all of them.
OK, here's the whole story. Some will be repeated as I'm posting this in several places, and various questions have popped up in each.
This seems to be a common issue as when I googled it I found my question being asked everywhere. But not one solution anywhere.
1. I need GIMP to read .dds files.
2. I found the relevant plugin at
http://registry.gimp.org/node/70
3. I downloaded the zip, unzipped it with WinRAR, and tried to install it according to the readme instructions:
To install, extract these files to your GIMP plugins directory.
This directory is usually located at:
C:\Program Files\GIMP 2\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins
4. At first I could not find the directory at all. Then I discovered I have GIMP folders in two places, in C:\ and in Users:\
I tried extracting the dds.exe into BOTH plugin folders, but each way I get the error message that libgimp-2.0-0.dll is missing.
5. Reading the comments at the link above it says this plugin only works with the x32 GIMP, but then I read this:
http://registry.gimp.org/node/27295
And my brain is melting. I have never had to do anything this complex before and I need help.