Share via

Error with sxstrace.exe tool and I am not sure how to fix it

Anonymous
2023-01-17T19:39:55+00:00

I was having difficulty with the speed of my laptop, it was going very slowly and I was trying to clear down apps and make more storage space. Now all of a sudden I can't open any PDFS and other programs and I am getting the error "The application has failed to start because its side to side configuration is incorrect see the application event log or use the command-line sxstrace.exe tool for more details". I have tried everythign I can google and think of and nothing works. Can anyone help please?

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments No comments

1 answer

Sort by: Most helpful
  1. Anonymous
    2023-01-17T23:45:18+00:00

    It sounds like you may have accidentally deleted or damaged a system file that is necessary for running PDFs and other programs. The error message you're seeing specifically mentions a "side-by-side configuration," which refers to a Windows feature that allows multiple versions of a DLL (dynamic-link library) to be stored on a computer at the same time. One possible solution is to try restoring your system to a previous point using the system restore feature.

    try using the sxstrace.exe tool, which can provide more detailed information about the specific DLLs that are causing the problem. You can find this tool in the Windows SDK, which can be downloaded from the Microsoft website. Once you have the tool, you can run it from the command prompt by typing "sxstrace.exe trace -logfile:logfile.etl"

    Here is the link from where you can download the tool

    https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/d...

    Kindly regards.

    30+ people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments