The application error 0xc0000142 can happen at a variety of times. Usually a reboot will fix the issue but you may need to do some other things to resolve it permanently, none of which are for the faint of heart. But don’t worry worst case is you have to reinstall your whole system. It will not cause any hardware damage.

What is this error?

This error is usually a failure to initialize a DLL correctly. This could be because the file is corrupted, missing, or possible has been added to with malicious code. None of these is a big issue and can be easily fixed. With some troubleshooting you can be back to fully functional in no time.

How to fix?

In order to fix this error the first thing I would do is see if it is happening to one or more applications. If more than one then you will probably want to do a sfc /scannow from a dos prompt on the install disk. This will scan all the system files and replace them with known good versions for the OS. Once the process is complete reboot your machine.

It is important to note that these are form the OS so your applications may have issues and need to be re-installed if they happen to use one of the files that are replaced. Although if they use the file chances are you will be fine.

The application error 0xc0000142 can be caused by any variety of reasons so the solution above may not fix the issue. So you may need to run some type of registry cleaner to assist also. Just make sure you back up your registry before you try to accomplish anything so you do not have bigger issues later.

Because there are a variety of reasons for this error there is no one ultimate solution to fix it. You will want to run the sfc command just to make sure you do not have any issues with the system files. From there a registry cleaner will be extremely useful to not only cleanup your registry but to verify the locations and pointers of all the DLL’s to ensure you do not have other issues as well.

Worst case if these solutions do not fix it then you will want to make sure you have a current backup of all your important information and reload your OS and then you applications. Making sure you run a registry cleaner afterwards to ensure you have a backup of the registry so that you do not have this issue in the future along with any of the multitude of possible issues you may run into with the registry.

Because of the error and it being such a generic error (application error 0xc0000142) there is really not a lot to go on to help you troubleshoot the issue. But with some patience and running sfc and then a cleaner you should be able to resolve the issue with a minimum of fuss and be back up and running in no time.