MS Office error “The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142)”

Windows users are likely to use one of the MS Office applications on a regular basis for a variety of purposes. However, several Windows users recently reported that when they tried to run any MS Office application, they received an error message that the application could not start properly with error number 0xc0000142.

Most of the Windows users cannot solve this problem simply by restarting the system. One of the things listed below could be the root cause of this problem.

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1. Corrupt system files
2. No administrator privileges while the app is running
3. Applications not installed correctly
4. Some of the DLL files are corrupted or not registered correctly.
5. windows not updated

If you are also facing such an issue on your system, then in this post we have compiled some possible solutions after taking into account all the factors mentioned above.

Solution 1: Repair Microsoft Office

If there is a possibility that the user has made a mistake while using MS Office products before, the most obvious option is to repair MS Office on the system. So let’s see how to repair Microsoft Office with the simple steps given below.

Step 1: Go to installed apps page in the system by pressing the button Windows key and click installed Applications

Step 2: Then click installed apps system settings of the search results as shown in the following screenshot.

Step 3 – On the installed apps page, type Office in the search bar as shown.

Step 4: Then click three vertical dots (Show more options) of microsoft office of the search results.

Step 5: Select METROodify of the list.

NOTE: Click Yes at any UAC prompt to accept it and continue.

Step 6: In the Repair window, select the Quick Repair radio button and click Repair As shown below.

Step 7 – It asks if you are ready to start the repair because until it is complete, you cannot use the office products.

Step 8: Click Repair to start the repair process.

Step 9: Immediately start repairing and wait until it is finished.

Step 10 – Once the repair is done, click Close.

Step 11 – Now try running any of the Office products and check if the issue is resolved.

I hope this fixes the problem.

Solution 2 – Re-register the DLL files

MS Office products use various DLL files to improve performance and improve user experience. When these DLL files get corrupted or cause a problem, it naturally affects the products in different ways. Therefore, it is better to re-register all the DLL files using the command prompt as explained below with the steps.

Step 1: open the Run dialog box pressing Windows + R keys together on the keyboard.

Step 2: Then type cmd at Run box and press CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER keys together to open the symbol of the system What management.

NOTE: Accept the UAC prompt by clicking Yes to proceed.

Step 3 – At the command prompt, copy and paste the following command and press Get into key to run it.

 para %i in (%windir%system32*.dll) do regsvr32.exe /s %i

Step 4: This may take a while, so wait until it’s done.

Step 5: Once done, close Command Prompt.

Step 6: Now check if the issue still occurs.

I hope this fixes the problem.

Fix 3 – Perform SFC scan and DISM state restore for corrupted files

When any system file gets damaged as a result of users unintentionally shutting down the system without saving open applications. These corrupted system files result in a variety of unforeseen issues. Therefore, whenever we see issues like the ones described above, we recommend that users perform an SFC scan and DISM state restore, which will detect corrupted data.

Let’s see how to perform an SFC scan and DISM status restore with a few simple steps below.

Step 1: open the Run dialog box pressing Windows + R keys together on the keyboard.

Step 2: Then type cmd at Run box and press CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER keys together to open the symbol of the system What management.

NOTE: Accept the UAC prompt by clicking Yes to proceed.

Step 3 – At the command prompt, type sfc /scan now and hit the Get into key to start scanning for corrupted system files.

Step 4 – Once done, copy and paste the following command to restore system health using DISM as shown below.

DISM /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

Step 5: Wait until it finishes.

Step 6 – Once done, close Command Prompt and check if the issue is resolved.

That’s it.

Solution 4 – Update Windows System

Microsoft releases newer versions and updates (either system or drivers etc.) that improve the Windows operating system and when a user does not keep the system up to date, he tends to have these types of application issues.

Therefore, it is better to keep the Windows system updated. Here are some steps below on how to update Windows system.

Step 1: Press windows + me keys together on the keyboard to open the Settings application on your system.

Step 2: Go to windows update in the left menu of the Settings app window, as shown below.

Step 3: On the right side of the Settings window, click the Search for updates in the upper right corner of the page, as shown below.

Step 4 – If you find available updates, download and install them.

Step 5 – After the Windows update, check if the problem still occurs or not.

I hope you have solved the problem.

Solution 5 – Restart the ClickToRun service

Microsoft introduces the ClickToRun service to help speed up the process of installing Office components on your system. It is also designed to update Office on any Windows system. So if the user has to make sure that there is no problem with the ClickToRun service in the system and it works normally.

Follow these steps below on how to restart the ClickToRun service using Task Manager.

Step 1: Press CTRL + MAYÚS + ESC keys together to open Task Manager in the system

Step 2: Once Task Manager opens, click on the Services tab in the left menu as shown below.

Step 3: So, to locate the click to run service from the service list.

Stage 4: The right button of the mouse about him click to run service and select Restart from the context menu as shown below.

Step 5 – Once it restarts, close the task manager window.

Step 6 – Check if the Office products start correctly.

I hope this has solved the problem.

Solution 6 – Check if other programs have changed registry settings

NOTE: To continue with this solution, make sure to export the registry file so that you can revert it at any later time, as this may further damage the system.

Step 1: Press Windows + R keys to open the Run box and type regeditar in the Run box and press the button Get into wrench.

Step 2: Accept the uac request to continue clicking And.

Step 3: This opens the registry editor window.

Step 4 – In the registry editor, copy and paste the following path into the empty address bar and press Get into wrench.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWindows

Step 5: Once you got to the Windows registry key, on the right side double click LoadAppInit_DLLs DWORD value to open its properties window.

Step 6: In the Properties window, enter 0 in the Value Data field and click it’s fine.

Step 7: Close the registry editor window.

That’s it.

I hope this post was helpful and that you found it informative. Please leave us your comments below.

Thanks!