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Trying to reinstall firefox on a windows 7 machine and I get "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142)"

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In troubleshooting a different issue I uninstalled Firefox. After fixing the other issue I'm tying to re-install Firefox and am getting an error message that says "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142). Click OK to close the application." The title bar of the window says "setup-stub.exe - Application Error." My PC is a Dell Studio 19 All-in-one running Windows 7 Home Premium.

In troubleshooting a different issue I uninstalled Firefox. After fixing the other issue I'm tying to re-install Firefox and am getting an error message that says "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142). Click OK to close the application." The title bar of the window says "setup-stub.exe - Application Error." My PC is a Dell Studio 19 All-in-one running Windows 7 Home Premium.

Chosen solution

I ended up solving this problem by doing an in-place reinstall of Windows 7. It took a little bit of time but fixed this and a couple of other issues I was having.

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All Replies (8)

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Sometimes the stub installer -- which connects back to Mozilla for additional files -- is blocked by security software.

Could you try the full installer from this page and see whether that works better (scroll down to your preferred language):

https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/

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I tried the full installer and it gave me the same message with a different error code (0xc00005).

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When I look up that error on Microsoft's forums, I find suggestions ranging from an incompatible update/hotfix to malware...

(There are many more along these lines)

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I have exactly the same problem that I cannot open Firefox now. Even if I try run firefox.exe -p I get same message but with (0xc0000022). I have tried all kinds of remedy. Internet Explorer also not opening, but strangely Chrome is OK.

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Hi iantwebb, there seem to be a very diverse range of problems that can cause that error, as shown in this Google search:

https://www.google.com/search?q=application+unable+start+correctly+%280xc0000022%29

Since IE won't start either, I suggest posting on Microsoft's support forum since they obviously are much more familiar with the clogs in the plumbing that cause this than we are here.

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Chosen Solution

I ended up solving this problem by doing an in-place reinstall of Windows 7. It took a little bit of time but fixed this and a couple of other issues I was having.

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I have no source to reinstall pre-installed windows 7 at present. What would I need?

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This blog entry helped me, http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

Or do a web search on repair install or in-place install and review the results. I did this with Windows 7 although I believe it can also work for Vista. I'm not sure about Windows 8 or 8.1.