How to fix error - The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000006)

Question

I'm trying to fix a laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, from a friend.

Microsoft Office and Windows Live Messenger are no longer working, whenever any of those programs are launched (excel, powerpoint, word, etc), i'm getting an error that reads

EXCEL.EXE The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000006)

I've tried searching for solutions, but i couldn't even find a specific reason/cause for this error, let alone a fix.

From some pages, i got the impression that this is related to .NET Framework related problems, and it makes sense since office and windows live messenger are not really related to each other, but they might both depend on having the .NET framework installed correctly.

Has anyone fixed/faced this problem before? Does anyone know a way to fix it, or could point me to some links that might give me an idea on how to fix this without reinstalling?

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks

Answer 1

this is almost always down to not having the .net framework correctly installed.

remove all existing framework installations then reinstall, right up to Version 4.

Answer 2

Based on this StackOverflow question and the linked page this is down to part of the exe or a dll not being available (e.g. loading over a network, and the network is disconnected).

If you are opening from your local harddisk, start with a check disk, but a reinstall might be in order.

Answer 3

Can you try running Process Monitor when you load any of those failing programs and check if you find any error. The error code 0xc0000006 means The handle is invalid. If that's the case you should see references for the same.

Answer 4

Disable protected view in the office application

go to file, options, trust centre, protected view and untick everything do the same for word, powerpoint etc