0xc0000142 means a program began to start, and one of the DLLs it loads failed to initialize. The message names no culprit, which makes the error feel random - it hits games, Office apps, sometimes even cmd.exe. In practice the causes form a short list: a program that injects itself into others (overlays, old antivirus), a damaged Visual C++ runtime, broken system files, or the program's own files. The fixes below walk that list from most to least likely.
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Restart the PC, then reinstall the Visual C++ Redistributable (both vc_redist.x64.exe and x86 from Microsoft's official page) and run sfc /scannow from an admin terminal. If the error survives, do a clean boot - when the program starts fine there, one of your startup programs is breaking it, most often an overlay or an old antivirus.
Overlays, macro tools, older antivirus and "assistants" load their DLL into every starting program. When that DLL misbehaves, the victim shows 0xc0000142.
The runtime DLLs thousands of programs share can fail to initialize when corrupted - reinstalling the redistributable replaces them cleanly.
An interrupted Windows update or disk error leaves system DLLs half-written - initialization fails in whatever program touches them first.
When only one program fails and the shared causes are ruled out, its own DLLs are the broken part - reinstalling or verifying files fixes it.
sfc /scannow.DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth, then SFC again, then restart.msconfig, press Enter. On the Services tab tick "Hide all Microsoft services", then press "Disable all".Do not do this: Skip the registry "LoadAppInit_DLLs" hacks that forums suggest for this error - editing that key by hand can stop Windows from booting, and modern Windows ignores most of it anyway. The clean boot in method 3 finds the same culprit safely.
Both stop a program at launch, but 0xc000007b is a 32/64-bit mismatch in a DLL, while 0xc0000142 means a DLL loaded fine and then failed to initialize - usually because another program interfered or the runtime it needs is damaged. The fixes overlap, which is why both guides walk the same core steps.
A third-party program that injects itself into every process - overlays, older antivirus, some "assistant" tools - initializes before the app and breaks it. That is why a clean boot is the key diagnostic: if the error disappears there, one of the startup programs is the culprit.
Only when the program's own files are the damaged part - worth trying after the runtimes and a clean boot, not before. If several unrelated programs show 0xc0000142, the shared cause (an injector or a damaged runtime) has to be fixed first, or the error returns.