The Application was unable to start correctly (0x00007b)!

yebbagamer

Distinguished
Dec 17, 2009
2
0
18,510
So I just installed Windows 8.1 to another hard drive so I could test it out and eventually switch to it. I am absolutely loving the speed increase and the new interface. Everything is working great and I have re-installed all of my programs, games, etc. there is one simple problem though. One program I like to use, the name of which is irrelevant, doesn't want to work on my Windows 8.1. Since I am dual-booting, I still have the option to go back and test this exact .exe, and I did.

It runs fine of the Windows 7 still, which is 64-bit, yet it won't run on the Windows 8.1, which is also 64-bit.

I am getting the apparently common but can't be fixed issue of: The Application was unable to start correctly (0x00007b)

So I started doing what everyone says to do...

1. Re-installed Visual C++. I did for every year, i.e. 2005, 2008, 2010, etc.

2. Replace the 5 DLL's for Visual C++ while in Safe-Mode and then restart.. I was only able to replace 4 of them, the last one was giving me permission troubles for some reason. It was called "msvcr100_clr0400.dll"

3. Run a debugger (WinDbg) and use Application Verifier to try and pinpoint the problem. Tried this, but the program doesn't boot far enough to gather any information..

4. Use Dependency Walker to see if it points you to a DLL. When I use Dependency Walker, it has very minimal results.

To be exact:

00:00:00.000: Started "d:\TomsHardware\TomsHardware\TomsHardware.EXE" (process 0x1364) at address 0x00400000 by thread 1. Cannot hook module.
00:00:00.000: Loaded "c:\windows\system32\NTDLL.DLL" at address 0x77D80000 by thread 1. Cannot hook module.
00:00:00.000: Page heap: pid 0x1364: page heap enabled with flags 0x3.
00:00:00.953: Exited "d:\TomsHardware\TomsHardware\TomsHardware.EXE" (process 0x1364) with code -1073741701 (0xC000007B) by thread 1.


(Filename replaced with TomsHardware for privacy reasons. :D)

5. I haven't done anything with DirectX for a few reasons. 1. All of my games work fine, and I play A LOT of games. This small .exe is the only thing giving me problems, and it has nothing to do with DirectX, so I know it's not that.

6. NTDLL.DLL, in Dependency Walker, I can't tell if the program can't start because NTDLL.DLL isn't hooking, or if NTDLL.DLL isn't hooking because the program can't start, but either way, I can't find ANYTHING on Google about NTDLL.DLL being a culprit of a program not launching.. Can anyone say anything about this?

I'm out of ideas. This .exe is useless to me and I don't even need it, but I just want my Windows 8 to be error free, so I don't mind spending 10 hours trying to figure it out.

Also: I want this thread to be a hub for other people with this issue, because even though there are hundreds of posts on "(0xC000007B), none of them have been able to fix my problem.

So please, any help would be appreciated! :D

Thank you,
-Yebba
 

yebbagamer

Distinguished
Dec 17, 2009
2
0
18,510
It's a keygen for a program, I just figured it best to not mention it, and no, I'm not trying to run a program I installed on Windows 7 and am attempting to run on Windows 8, it's in fact a standalone .exe requiring no additional files to support it's operation, so installation is unnecessary.