Troubleshooting the 0xc00007b Error While Launching an Application

Computers are considered to be one of the greatest inventions of humanity. Their influence and impact cannot be understated. But, any day-to-day glitches and errors in the course of regular computer use can lead to a lot of hair-pulling and irritation with your machine. One of the errors that you may observe while using your computer, is the 0xc000007b error, which states that your desired application was unable to be started. This can be due to several factors, such as msvcr100.dll missing, incorrect windows version, administrator privileges, etc. Let us examine these factors in greater detail to solve any issues that a user may be facing.

How to Fix Troubleshooting the 0xc00007b Error

1. Incorrect Windows Version

While it may pass unnoticed by anyone other than the enthusiasts. Windows has two major versions of every major iteration that is released, major iteration implying all new experiences such as XP, 7,8, 10, etc. These versions are different from the ones that may come to mind at first, such as Basic, Home, Home Pro, Professional, Ultimate, and so on. These permutations and combinations only differ on a superficial level in the context of some feature sets being locked off to the lower-tier versions. The higher-tier versions are usually relevant for enthusiast-level users or enterprises.

But, under the hood, these versions are all the same. They all run on the same “architecture” of Windows, that is the same kernel and internal structure. However, Windows comes in two versions, that is the 32 bit and 64-bit versions, which have different kernels and foundations in their architecture. They are wildly different. So 64-bit versions of applications won't run on 32-bit versions. But 32-bit will run on 64-bit. An easy way to ascertain this is, if your C drive has Program Files (x86) in your directory, that means that your windows are on 64 bit, as x86 is the term for classifying 32-bit software. So just be sure that you are using the right version of your application on the right version of Windows

2. Lack of Common Frameworks Like Visual C++, DirectX

In some cases, this error may pop due to the lack of a DLL file, like assume a case where the computer finds out msvcr100.dll is missing, then the application will be unable to boot. Msvcr100 missing poses a huge problem as it's a core DLL of the Visual C++ library, a foundational IDE and codebase for executing Windows Applications, Similar DLLs like in the d3dx9 category related to graphical processing frameworks may cause similar errors.

3. Administrator Privileges

Modern versions of Windows required Administrator Privileges to enable applications to make changes to the deeper architecture of Windows to execute their requisite task. In the context of Windows, access is divided into “Rings”, with 0 being the “all-access” level and 3 being the strictest level of access. Ring 0 means that the application can make any changes to the computer and tap into any other existing object, while 3 means that the application has restrictions on what resources it can tap into. If you attempt to run an application that may require deeper access, such as an Antivirus, while not having admin privileges, it may cause the 0xc00007b error. The solution, in this case, is to enable administrator privileges for the application which can be easily done by right-clicking and selecting “Run as Administrator”.