Error 0xc0000142 on Windows 11 and 10: The Application Was Unable to Start Correctly (Complete Fix Guide)

What error 0xc0000142 actually means

Error 0xc0000142 is a Windows status code that means a program started, but one of the DLL files it depends on failed during its own start-up routine, so Windows killed the program before you ever saw a window. Microsoft's own NTSTATUS reference lists 0xC0000142 as STATUS_DLL_INIT_FAILED, with the description "Initialization of the dynamic link library failed. The process is terminating abnormally." The dialog you see on screen is the friendlier version: "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142). Click OK to close the application."

That definition matters because it tells you where to look. The code does not say your file is missing (that is a different code, and our page on the "DLL not found" error covers it). It does not say the program is the wrong bit-version either (that is 0xc000007b, covered in our 0xc000007b guide). It says something was found and loaded, and then crashed while initializing. In practice the culprit is almost always one of five things: a damaged Visual C++ runtime, a damaged Windows system file, a second piece of software injecting itself into the program (antivirus, overlay, tweaking tool), a permissions or user-profile problem, or, more rarely, failing hardware or malware.

This guide is the long version. We already publish a short checklist, Fix Windows Error 0xc0000142, that gives you five quick steps in five minutes. Use that page if you only need the fast path. Use this page when those steps did not work, when it happens with one specific game or application, when it appeared right after a Windows update, or when you want to understand which fix applies to your situation instead of trying random ones. We keep the two pages separate on purpose: the short page is the checklist, this page is the diagnosis.

Everything below applies to Windows 11 and Windows 10. Where the steps differ between the two, we say so. All commands are standard Microsoft tools that ship with Windows or come directly from Microsoft's own download pages. We do not recommend registry cleaners, "DLL fixer" downloads or driver updater utilities for this error, and we explain why in the section on common mistakes.

Causes at a glance: symptom, likely cause, first fix

Match what you observe to a row in this table to skip straight to the most probable fix. The "how it usually looks" column is the most useful one: the pattern of which programs fail is the best clue you have before you run a single command.

If you are short on time, the most statistically useful single move is also the least glamorous: reinstall the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable, both the x86 and the x64 packages, from Microsoft's own page. A very large share of "unable to start correctly" cases on games and creative software trace back to a damaged or missing runtime, and many people only install the 64-bit one while the program needs the 32-bit one. We walk through it in Step 3.

Before you start: three minutes of triage

Spend three minutes collecting facts, because the fix you need depends on the answers to four simple questions. Nothing here changes your system. It only keeps you from running thirty-minute repairs that cannot possibly help.

1. Which program fails, and is it only that one? Try opening Notepad, Calculator, Paint, Edge and Settings. If those all open normally, the problem is not Windows as a whole. If Notepad or Settings also fail with the same code, jump to the system-file steps (Step 5) because something fundamental is damaged.
2. When did it start? Write down the date. Then open Settings, Windows Update, Update history, and see what installed on or just before that day. Also think about new software, new drivers, a new antivirus, a game mod, a Windows feature upgrade, or a power cut during an update.
3. Does it happen on every launch, or sometimes? A failure on every launch points to a damaged file or a permanent conflict. An intermittent one points to a conflict that depends on timing, such as an overlay that loads late, or to hardware.
4. What does the error say exactly? Some dialogs name the program in the title bar and some do not. The text can also be "Application Error: The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142)". If the title bar shows a different program than the one you launched, you have found a launcher or helper process, and that helper is the real thing to fix.

Next, look at the log Windows already wrote about the crash. Press Win + X, open Event Viewer, expand Windows Logs, and choose Application. Look for an Error entry at the exact time of the failure, usually with the source "Application Error" and Event ID 1000. The General tab lists a Faulting application name and often a Faulting module name. If the faulting module is a DLL belonging to a specific vendor (an overlay, an anti-cheat, a graphics tool, a security product), you have just identified the conflicting software without any guessing. If it is ntdll.dll or KERNELBASE.dll only, that is a generic hand-off and tells you little, so rely on the table above.

A second tool worth a minute is Reliability Monitor. Press Win + R, type perfmon /rel, and press Enter. It draws a timeline of application failures, Windows failures and installed updates by day, so you can see at a glance whether the first red X on the chart lines up with a particular install. This is often the quickest way to confirm "it started the day that update installed".

The fix ladder: eleven steps in the right order

Work down the ladder in order, and test the failing program after every step. The steps are ordered by three things: how often they work, how little risk they carry, and how long they take. Stop as soon as the program starts. Do not stack five changes and then wonder which one helped, because if the problem returns you will want to know the cause.

Step 1: Quick checks (restart, administrator, location)

Restart Windows properly, run the program as administrator once, and make sure it is launching from a normal local folder. These sound basic, but together they clear a surprising number of cases.

• Do a real restart, not a shutdown. On Windows 10 and 11, "Shut down" can use Fast Startup, which restores part of the previous session instead of starting fresh. Choose Restart from the Start menu. This reloads every driver and runtime from scratch.
• Run as administrator. Right-click the program (or its shortcut), choose Run as administrator. If it starts, you know the cause is a permission or UAC issue: the program is trying to load or write something it cannot reach as a standard user. A permanent workaround is Properties, Compatibility tab, tick Run this program as an administrator. The better long-term fix is to reinstall it into C:\Program Files or a standard games folder.
• Launch from a local drive. Programs started from a network share, a OneDrive-only placeholder, a USB stick, a very long path or a folder with unusual characters sometimes fail to initialize their libraries. Copy the folder to C:\ and try again.
• Close everything else. Close launchers, RGB utilities, screen recorders, VPN clients and game overlays, then try. If it starts, one of them was the conflict, and Step 7 helps you pin it down.
• Check you are not launching a stale shortcut. After a program updates, an old shortcut may point to a folder that no longer holds the right files. Launch the .exe directly from its install folder.

Step 2: Compatibility mode and the Compatibility Troubleshooter

For older software and older games, compatibility mode tells Windows to present itself as an earlier version, which often changes how the program's libraries initialize. It rarely fixes modern software, but it is a two-minute test and it is the right first move for anything more than a few years old.

1. Right-click the program's .exe file (not the folder), choose Properties, then the Compatibility tab.
2. Click Run compatibility troubleshooter and choose Try recommended settings. Test the program from the button inside the wizard. If it works, save the settings.
3. If the wizard does not help, tick Run this program in compatibility mode for and pick Windows 8 first, then Windows 7 if that fails. Click Apply and test.
4. Also test with Disable fullscreen optimizations ticked and with Reduced color mode only if the program is genuinely very old.

Do not leave strange compatibility settings applied to everything. If the setting did not help, untick it again so you do not add a new variable to your testing.

Step 3: Reinstall the Visual C++ Redistributable (x86 and x64)

The most common single fix is reinstalling the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable, both the 32-bit (x86) and the 64-bit (x64) packages, from Microsoft's own page. A huge share of games, creative tools and utilities are built with Microsoft's C++ compiler and need these runtime libraries. When they are damaged, partly updated or missing, the program's DLLs fail during initialization and you get 0xc0000142.

Three facts from Microsoft's documentation shape the right way to do this:

• Microsoft publishes the "latest supported v14" Redistributable as one package per architecture, and Visual Studio 2017 and later share the same redistributable files. One current package covers programs built with the 2017, 2019, 2022 and newer toolsets.
• The installed version must be the same as, or newer than, the version the program was built with. That is why installing the latest is the safe choice.
• The architecture must match the program, and a 64-bit Windows PC can run 32-bit programs. That is why you should install both x86 and x64, even on a 64-bit system. Many people install only the x64 version and the 32-bit game still fails.

How to do it:

1. Open Settings, Apps, Installed apps (Windows 10: Apps and features). In the search box type "Visual C++". Note the entries you have, but do not uninstall them all yet.
2. Download the current packages from Microsoft's page "Latest supported Visual C++ Redistributable downloads" on learn.microsoft.com. The permanent links there are https://aka.ms/vc14/vc_redist.x64.exe and https://aka.ms/vc14/vc_redist.x86.exe. On an ARM PC, the x64 package also contains the ARM64 binaries according to Microsoft's table, and a separate ARM64 link exists.
3. Run the installer. If it offers Repair, choose Repair. If it says a newer version is already installed, choose Repair rather than cancelling, because the installed copy can be damaged even if the version number is right.
4. Do the same for the other architecture. Restart Windows. Test the program.

If Repair does not work, uninstall the entries named Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable (x64) and (x86) (names vary slightly by version), restart, and install the two fresh packages. Keep the older entries from 2013, 2012, 2010 and earlier unless you have a specific reason: Microsoft states those remain installed side by side because older programs need them. Some older games still need the 2010 or 2013 runtime, so removing them can create new failures.

Watch out for one trap. Microsoft ended support for the Visual Studio 2015 toolset on October 15, 2025, and the 2015 redistributable was then folded into the current v14 line. That does not make your older games stop working, but it means that downloading an "old 2015 redistributable" from a random site is neither needed nor safe. Use the Microsoft links only.

Step 4: Check the other runtimes (.NET, DirectX, WebView2)

If the program is not a C++ program, the failing library may belong to .NET, DirectX or another runtime, so check which one your program needs from its own documentation. Windows 11 includes .NET Framework 4.8.1, and .NET Framework 3.5 is an optional Windows feature. Older utilities and some business software need 3.5.

• .NET Framework 3.5: press Win + R, type optionalfeatures, tick .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0), click OK and let Windows download it. This can fail if Windows Update is blocked or damaged, which is itself a clue that Step 5 is needed.
• Modern .NET (6, 8 and later): some applications ask for the ".NET Desktop Runtime". Get it only from dotnet.microsoft.com, and install the architecture the app needs (x64 or x86). If the application's page tells you which version it requires, install exactly that.
• DirectX: modern Windows already includes DirectX 12, and updates arrive through Windows Update. A small number of older games still expect legacy DirectX 9 or 10 helper files. If a very old game fails, check whether its installer folder contains a "DirectX" or "redist" subfolder and run the setup inside it. We could not confirm one universal Microsoft download that fixes every older title, so follow the game's own documentation.
• WebView2: some modern launchers embed a web page for their login or store screen and depend on the Microsoft Edge WebView2 runtime. Reinstall it from Microsoft's own WebView2 page if a launcher (not the game) is what fails.

After each runtime change, restart and test. If the failure is the same on every program that uses that runtime, stop and move on: that pattern is a sign of damage lower in Windows itself.

Step 5: Repair Windows itself with DISM and SFC

Run DISM first and System File Checker second: DISM repairs the Windows component store that SFC draws its good copies from. Microsoft describes System File Checker as a tool that verifies protected system files and, when it finds a damaged one, replaces it from a cache folder or from the Windows installation source. If that source is itself damaged, SFC cannot repair properly, which is why running DISM first is the sound order. Use this step when several unrelated programs fail, when the failure began after a crash or power cut, or when the earlier steps did nothing.

1. Press Win + X and choose Terminal (Admin) on Windows 11, or Windows PowerShell (Admin) or Command Prompt (Admin) on Windows 10. Accept the UAC prompt. The window title must say Administrator.
2. Run a quick health check:
   DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
   It reports whether the component store is flagged as corrupted. It takes seconds.
3. Run the real repair (this is the one that matters):
   DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
   It needs an internet connection because it can fetch good files from Windows Update. The progress bar can sit at 20 percent or 62 percent for several minutes. That is normal. Do not close the window. Allow up to 30 minutes on a slow drive.
4. Then run:
   sfc /scannow
   It verifies every protected system file and takes roughly 5 to 20 minutes on most PCs.
5. Read the final message and act on it:
   • "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations." Your system files are fine. The cause is somewhere else, so continue down the ladder.
   • "Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them." Restart and test the program. Run sfc /scannow a second time after the restart to confirm it is now clean.
   • "Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them." Run DISM again, restart, run SFC again. If it still fails, details are written to the CBS log under %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log, and that situation usually calls for the repair install in Step 11.

Two practical notes. First, if SFC refuses to start with a message about a repair already pending, restart Windows and try again. Second, if DISM stops with an error such as 0x800f081f or 0x800f0906 (it could not find source files), that points to Windows Update problems rather than to your program, and our Windows 11 update failure guide and the repair install in Step 11 are the better route. Do not keep rerunning the same failing command hoping for a different result.

Step 6: A clean boot to catch conflicting software

A clean boot starts Windows with only Microsoft services and no third-party startup items, so if the program works there, you have proved that another program is interfering. This is the most valuable diagnostic step on the ladder because it separates "Windows or program is broken" from "something else is injecting itself".

1. Press Win + R, type msconfig, press Enter.
2. On the Services tab, tick Hide all Microsoft services, then click Disable all. (Do not skip the "hide" tick, or you may disable Windows services and create a worse problem.)
3. On the Startup tab, click Open Task Manager. In Task Manager's Startup tab, right-click each enabled item and choose Disable. Close Task Manager and click OK in msconfig.
4. Restart, and test the failing program immediately, before opening anything else.
5. If it works: something you disabled is the cause. Re-enable half of the services, restart and test. If it fails, the culprit is in that half. Keep halving until you find the single one. This takes five or six restarts at most, even with fifty items.
6. If it still fails: the conflict is not a startup program. Your next suspects are Windows files (Step 5, if you skipped it), runtimes (Steps 3 and 4), or the user profile (Step 8).
7. When done, go back to msconfig, choose Normal startup, and re-enable the Task Manager startup items you want to keep.

A caution for security software: a clean boot leaves your third-party antivirus not running for that session. Do not browse the web or open email in that mode. Use it only to launch the failing program, then return to normal startup.

Step 7: Overlays, injectors, tweak tools and antivirus

Anything that loads its own DLL into other programs can cause 0xc0000142, and the usual suspects are game overlays, performance monitors, RGB and peripheral software, screen recorders, "optimizer" tools and security suites. These products work by injecting a library into the target program's process. If that library cannot initialize in that specific program, for example because it is outdated, built for the wrong architecture, or blocked by an anti-cheat, the target program dies with exactly this error.

Common sources to test, one at a time, by turning them off or exiting them from the system tray:

• Game overlays: Steam overlay, the Xbox Game Bar, the NVIDIA or AMD in-game overlay and any chat app overlay. Each has its own settings page where the overlay can be disabled globally.
• Frame and hardware monitors: performance counters, frame limiters and overclocking utilities that hook into DirectX.
• Peripheral and RGB software: mouse, keyboard and lighting suites. Update them or exit them completely, not just close the window.
• Screen recorders and streaming tools: they hook video capture into other programs.
• "PC booster" and tweak tools: these often disable services or change registry entries. A tool that "optimized" your PC shortly before the failure is a strong suspect.
• Third-party antivirus or endpoint protection: some security products inject a monitoring DLL into every program. Update the product, then test with its real-time protection paused for a minute. If the program then starts, add the program's folder to the product's exclusion list. Do not leave protection off. If you do not have a paid product, Microsoft Defender is built in, and our free antivirus comparison explains the trade-offs.

A related and subtle case: a program that worked until an anti-cheat or protection driver was updated. If a multiplayer game fails right after its launcher updated its protection component, reinstalling or repairing the launcher and the game, not Windows, is usually the fix. Verify the game files through the launcher (we cover the exact buttons in the games section below).

Step 8: Test with a new Windows user account

If the program works under a different Windows user on the same PC, the cause is something in your profile (per-user settings, registry keys or a damaged AppData folder), not Windows or the program. This is a surprisingly quick way to tell.

1. Open Settings, Accounts, Other users (Windows 10: Family and other users) and add a local test user, or use an existing second account. On Windows 11 you may need to choose "I don't have this person's sign-in information" and then "Add a user without a Microsoft account".
2. Give it administrator rights for the test, sign in, and install or launch the failing program.
3. If it works, the problem is profile-level. You can reset the program's per-user data: uninstall it, then rename its folder in %AppData% and %LocalAppData% (for example from MyApp to MyApp.old) before reinstalling. That keeps your data safe while removing broken settings.
4. If it fails for the new user too, the cause is machine-wide. Go back to Steps 3, 5 and 6.

Step 9: When a Windows update is the trigger

If the error began right after a Windows update, first let Windows finish the job, then check for a newer fix, and only then remove the update. Updates sometimes install in two phases, and a half-finished state can leave runtimes or system libraries inconsistent.

1. Restart twice. Some updates finish configuring on the second boot.
2. Open Settings, Windows Update and click Check for updates. Install everything offered, including optional driver and .NET updates if they relate to the failing program, then restart.
3. If it still fails, open Windows Update, Update history, Uninstall updates. Look at what installed on the date you wrote down in the triage step. Uninstall only the most recent quality update, restart and test. Do not remove several at once.
4. If removing the update fixes it, pause updates for a week from the Windows Update page, check Microsoft's release health page for a known issue, then update again. Do not stay unpatched for long: security updates matter, and our Windows 11 blue screen guide covers what to do if an update causes something more severe.

Be honest with yourself about correlation. People often blame the last update because it is the most visible event, when the real trigger was a driver, a game patch or an overlay update that happened the same day. Reliability Monitor, mentioned earlier, tells you what really changed on that date.

Step 10: The AppInit_DLLs registry mechanism (advanced)

AppInit_DLLs is an old Windows mechanism that forces custom DLLs into every program that loads user32.dll, and a bad entry there can cause 0xc0000142 on many programs at once. Microsoft's documentation explains the risk plainly: legitimate software uses it for API hooking, but it can cause deadlocks and performance problems, "a large set of malware use this mechanism to compromise systems", and starting in Windows 8 the infrastructure is disabled when Secure Boot is enabled. That last point means most modern PCs with Secure Boot on are not affected by this particular mechanism, so check Secure Boot first by pressing Win + R, typing msinfo32 and reading Secure Boot State.

If Secure Boot State is Off or Unsupported and many programs fail, look at the entry. This step edits the registry, so take a restore point first (type "Create a restore point" in the Start menu).

1. Press Win + R, type regedit, press Enter, accept UAC.
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows. Look at the value AppInit_DLLs and the value LoadAppInit_DLLs.
3. On a clean system, AppInit_DLLs is empty and LoadAppInit_DLLs is 0. If AppInit_DLLs contains a file path, do not guess: note the file name and search the name online or check who published the file (right-click it, Properties, Digital Signatures).
4. Check the 32-bit equivalent at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows.
5. If the entry belongs to a product you uninstalled (a leftover), or you cannot identify it and it is unsigned, treat it as suspicious. Export the key first (File, Export), then clear the AppInit_DLLs value and set LoadAppInit_DLLs to 0, restart and test. Then run the malware checks below.

If any of this feels uncomfortable, stop here. A wrong registry edit is harder to undo than a reinstall. A leftover entry from a removed program, or one from an unknown source, is exactly the situation where a technician checking it with you is cheaper than a second problem. A free Microsoft tool called Autoruns (from the Sysinternals suite) lists AppInit entries and every other auto-start location in one view with publisher names, which makes identifying owners much easier than reading the registry by hand.

Step 11: Repair install (in-place upgrade), the last software step

A repair install reinstalls Windows system files on top of the existing installation while keeping your files, apps and settings, and it fixes almost every software-side cause that SFC and DISM cannot. Use it when SFC says it could not repair files, when several programs and Windows components fail, or when you have worked through the ladder without success.

1. Back up what matters first (see our data recovery guide if you already suspect the drive).
2. On current Windows 11 builds, open Settings, System, Recovery and look for Fix problems using Windows Update with a Reinstall now button. Availability can vary by build, so if you do not see it, use the next method.
3. Otherwise download the official Windows 11 (or Windows 10) disk image or Media Creation Tool from Microsoft, mount the ISO by double-clicking it, and run setup.exe. When asked, choose to keep personal files and apps.
4. The process takes 30 to 90 minutes and restarts several times. Keep a laptop plugged in.

This is the right moment to stop and think about value. If you reached Step 11 and you do not have a backup, or the PC is your work machine, a remote session where a technician watches the process is safer than doing it alone. If the repair install still leaves the error, the cause is almost certainly hardware or the program itself, not Windows.

Per-app notes: games, Office, Adobe, launchers

Different programs fail for different reasons, so the right first move depends on what you are launching. The notes below keep to what is documented or widely repeatable, and we mark where a vendor does not publish a specific fix.

Games (Steam, Epic, Xbox app, standalone launchers)

• Verify game files. In Steam: right-click the game, Properties, Installed Files, Verify integrity of game files. In the Epic Games Launcher: Library, the three dots on the game, Manage, Verify. This replaces damaged files without re-downloading the whole game.
• Install both x86 and x64 Visual C++ runtimes (Step 3). Many games ship their own installers for runtimes in a folder such as _CommonRedist or Redist inside the game directory. Running those is a legitimate repair.
• Turn off overlays and recorders for the test (Step 7), and temporarily close tools that hook DirectX.
• Anti-cheat services: multiplayer games may start a protection service. If it is not running or was updated incorrectly, repair the game through its launcher. Vendors differ, so follow the game's own support page for its anti-cheat.
• Mods and trainers: a mod loader that replaces a DLL is a classic cause of initialization failure. Remove the mod, verify files, then add mods back one by one.
• Old games: use compatibility mode (Step 2) and the game's own redistributable folder.

Microsoft Office, Word, Excel, Outlook

Microsoft has a dedicated support page for this error in Office, and its ordered fixes are worth following exactly: update Office (Microsoft names version 2102, build 13801.20808, or later), repair Office from Installed apps (choose Online Repair, the thorough option, rather than only Quick Repair), run Windows Update, check that the Office Software Protection Platform service is set to Automatic and Running if it is listed, and finally uninstall and reinstall Office. Uninstalling the Office apps does not delete your documents. Microsoft notes that if a newer Office version does not use the Protection Platform service, it will not appear in Services, and you simply move on. If your IT department manages updates, contact them rather than forcing changes.

Adobe and other creative software

We could not find a single vendor-published fix specific to 0xc0000142 for Adobe products, so treat this as general guidance rather than an Adobe rule. Creative applications depend heavily on the Visual C++ runtimes (Step 3) and on GPU drivers. A sensible order is: install both runtime packages, update the Creative Cloud desktop app, repair or reinstall the specific application from that app, and test with plug-ins and extensions disabled. If a plug-in installer from a third party (a presets pack, a codec) was added just before the failure, remove it first.

Discord, launchers and other self-updating apps

Self-updating apps such as Discord, game launchers and some messaging tools keep their files in your user profile, which makes damaged per-user files a likely cause. If the symptom is an update loop rather than the 0xc0000142 dialog, our guide on Discord update failed covers that exact problem. For an error 0xc0000142 on such an app, the profile test in Step 8, a clean reinstall from the vendor's own site and the runtime reinstall in Step 3 are the right sequence.

When it points to failing hardware

If different programs fail unpredictably, if Windows has freezes or random restarts, or if the error survives a repair install, suspect your drive or your memory. A program's libraries can fail to initialize if a few bytes read from disk or RAM come back wrong, and that is why this error sometimes shows up alongside other odd behavior.

• Drive health, first look: open PowerShell as administrator and run Get-PhysicalDisk | Select FriendlyName, HealthStatus, OperationalStatus. A status other than Healthy is a warning. Also open Event Viewer, Windows Logs, System, and look for repeated disk or NTFS errors. These are free and take two minutes.
• File system check: run chkdsk C: /scan for a read-only online scan. Only schedule a full chkdsk C: /f /r if you have a backup, because a heavily failing drive can get worse under stress.
• Signs of a dying drive: clicking or grinding noises on a hard drive, files that turn unreadable, a PC that takes minutes to boot, or a drive that disappears. Our drive not detected guide covers the related case where the drive disappears entirely. If you see them, stop troubleshooting and back up first, because every extra hour of use reduces the chance of recovery.
• Memory: press Win + R, type mdsched.exe and choose to restart and test. It runs a basic pass and reports after boot. A clean basic pass does not rule out all memory faults, but errors found there are real. If you recently enabled XMP or EXPO memory overclock, turn it off in the BIOS and test.

When it signals malware

Treat 0xc0000142 as a possible malware sign only when it comes with other warning signs, because on its own it is far more often a damaged runtime than an infection. The warning signs are: your security software is disabled and will not turn on, strange processes using CPU, new browser toolbars or search engines, pop-ups, programs you did not install, a suspicious entry in AppInit_DLLs (Step 10), or the error hitting security tools themselves.

1. Open Windows Security, Virus and threat protection, Scan options. Choose Microsoft Defender Antivirus (offline scan) and click Scan now. The PC restarts and scans before Windows fully loads, which catches threats that hide while Windows is running.
2. Run a full scan with your normal antivirus. Then run one reputable second-opinion scanner. Use only vendors you recognize, from their official sites.
3. Check startup entries in Task Manager, Startup, and use Autoruns for everything else.
4. If you suspect an infection, change important passwords from a different, clean device, not from the infected PC.

Our complete guides on removing a virus from a computer and what malware is go through the cleanup process in depth. If the PC holds business data or client information, stop and call a professional: a wrong cleanup can erase evidence you may need later.

Common mistakes that make it worse

• Downloading DLL files from "DLL download" websites. These sites are a known route for malware, and replacing a system DLL by hand is a common way to turn one failing program into a broken Windows. Use the Microsoft runtime installers and SFC instead.
• Using registry cleaners or "PC optimizer" tools. They remove entries they wrongly judge unused. They also make the failure harder to diagnose.
• Running a driver updater utility. Install graphics drivers from the manufacturer (NVIDIA, AMD, Intel) or from Windows Update, not from a bundled updater.
• Changing five things at once. You cannot tell what worked, and you may break something else.
• Skipping the backup before Step 11. A repair install rarely loses data, but "rarely" is not a reason to skip it.
• Repeating the same failing command. If DISM fails twice with the same error, move to a different step.

Three realistic scenarios (illustrative)

Realistic scenario (illustrative, not a real client case).

Scenario 1: One game fails after a launcher update

A player's PC launches everything normally, but one shooter shows 0xc0000142 every time since the launcher updated overnight. Notepad, Edge and other games work, so Windows is not the problem. The Event Viewer entry names a DLL from the game's own anti-cheat folder. The player verifies the game files (4 minutes), runs the game's bundled redistributable setup, and the game starts. Total time: about 15 minutes. Cost: zero.

Scenario 2: Several programs fail after a power cut

An office PC loses power during a Windows update. The next morning, accounting software, a PDF tool and the label printer utility all fail with 0xc0000142. The user runs DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth (it takes 25 minutes), then sfc /scannow, which reports it repaired corrupt files. After a restart, the three programs start, and a second SFC run is clean. Total time: about an hour. If SFC had reported unfixable files, the next step would have been the repair install in Step 11, with a backup first.

Scenario 3: Random failures plus a slow, clicking drive

A 6-year-old laptop with a hard drive starts failing on random programs with 0xc0000142, takes seven minutes to boot, and the drive makes a faint clicking noise. The runtime reinstall helps for one day and then fails again. A drive health check shows a warning. The right move is to stop all repair attempts, copy the important files immediately, and replace the drive with an SSD. Continuing to run DISM and SFC on a failing drive can waste its remaining life. This is the situation where our hard drive recovery guide and a data recovery lab matter, not another registry tweak.

What it costs: DIY versus paying a technician

Almost every cause on this page is free to fix yourself, and the only paid options are a replacement drive or a technician's time. Microsoft's runtimes, DISM, SFC, repair install and Defender are free. A technician session makes sense when your time or your data is worth more than the fee.

Printable checklist

Official resources

• Microsoft: Latest supported Visual C++ Redistributable downloads
• Microsoft Support: Error 0xC0000142 when you start an Office application
• Microsoft Learn: AppInit DLLs and Secure Boot
• Microsoft Learn: NTSTATUS values (STATUS_DLL_INIT_FAILED)
• Microsoft Learn: System File Checker

When to call a professional

Call a technician when the PC is needed for work and you have no backup, when you reached Step 11 without success, when you see signs of malware, or when you suspect a failing drive. These are the cases where more guessing costs more than help. IT Cares has done remote and on-site IT support in Quebec and across Canada since 2014. We connect to your PC remotely, you watch every step, and we explain what the cause was. You can call us at 1 (888) 711-9428 or book a session. We cannot promise a cause before we look at the logs, and we will tell you plainly if the answer is a failing drive or a replacement rather than a fix.

Frequently asked questions

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Sources and official references

Last verified: November 5, 2026

• Microsoft Learn: Latest supported Visual C++ Redistributable downloads
• Microsoft Support: Error 0xC0000142 when you start an Office application
• Microsoft Learn: AppInit DLLs and Secure Boot
• Microsoft Learn: NTSTATUS values
• Microsoft Learn: System File Checker