Error: "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142)"

[jessica.t]

Most of us have seen this install error in AutoCAD in some point in our Autodesk lives. It's been coming up a bit more recently so we want to take a moment to showcase this Autodesk Solution courtesy of the Autodesk Knowledge Network.

In some cases AutoCAD will not show this error and will simply not start and provides no error message. The startup errors may reference LMU.exe, or the event log may refer to a crash of mshtml.dll.

 

Causes:

Possible causes include incorrectly registered DLL files, incompatible DLLs, or another program may be preventing AutoCAD from running.

Possible conflicting software includes:

• Program called "Search Protect" or "SW booster"
• Incorrectly switched reg key
• NVIDIA drivers
• Beyond Trust "Trusted Desktop" btpload64.dll
• Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended acapture64.dll and acapture32.dll
• Corrupted C++ installation
• Antivirus or Protection Packages

Solution:

Uninstall "Search Protect" or "SW Booster" or "Performance Optimizer"

1. Open the Window Control Panel
2. Access the installed program list
3. Select and Uninstall "Search Protect" 
4. Start AutoCAD

Incorrect Registry Key

A different program may incorrectly be switching a registry key from a 0 to a 1. Changing the value of the following registry key to 0 may help:
 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion \Windows\LoadAppInit_DLLs

Nvidia Drivers

Navigate to the NVIDIA website and update the drivers for your graphics card. www.nvidia.com

Beyond Trust

The program "Beyond Trust" could be locking down the software. You may identify a reference to btpload.dll

• uninstall the program or rename the btpload.dll to test. Adjusting the registry key (above) may also solve this particular conflict.

Adobe Acrobat

For Adobe Acrobat 9, rename the following DLL files:

C:\Windows\System32\acapture64.dll
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\acapture32.dll

Alternatively, you may uninstall the "Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended 64-bit Add-On." On 32-bit systems, modify the Adobe Acrobat 9 program to not have the "Capture CAD Modules" installed.

Corrupt C++ Installations

If this is a C++ installation error, uninstall the C++ modules on the system and reinstall. Autodesk installers ship with prerequisites in the extracted installation folders- not the installed program files folders. You can manually access the installers here on most machines:

C:\Autodesk\PROGRAM FOLDER NAME\3rdParty\x64\VCRedist
C:\Autodesk\PROGRAM FOLDER NAME\3rdParty\x86\VCRedist

Uninstall the redistributables and reinstall them from this location. 

Antivirus or Protection Packages

There are a variety of products in use that either lock down program access outright, or try to prevent malicious software from running. The parameters companies use to determine inappropriate system access can vary greatly and could possibly affect specific programs on your machine from running,

For situations where other solutions have not worked, it is worth reviewing the apps of this variety that may be installed and checking to see if there are allowable exceptions in coverage.  

Further Troubleshooting with "Autoruns"

To help troubleshoot and determine what is conflicting with AutoCAD, use can also use the Microsoft's Autoruns utility.

1. Download and install Autoruns.
2. Start Autoruns.
3. Start AutoCAD.
4. Check AppInit tab in Autoruns window.
5. Review the DLL files listed and locate them based on the listed paths.
6. Uninstall the related program or rename the files, one by one, testing the program startup after each change to try to isolate the problematic DLL.

If you need any additional help, please visit us on Twitter @Autodeskhelp or if you have any other product specific questions please post a new message in one our Autodesk Community forums.

[Anonymous]

Another program called 'Optimizer Pro' was hindering Autocad from opening. A simple uninstallation of that program got CAD15 to work again.

[jessica.t]

Thanks for your input, @Anonymous!