0xc0000142

Question

Error 0xc0000142 on trying to open ANY Office 2019 app. Windows 11 Home 10.0.22000 Build 22000. THREE(3) MS engineers have tried and FAILED to fix.

"The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142). Please click Ok to close the application"

Basically, Office 2019 edition FAILS to run on a Windows 11 PC (pre-installed, less than 3 months old), and the best (or last) attempt at a solution that a series of THREE (3) engineers came up with was.... "Re-install the Windows operating system".

Answer 1

Contributors in this forum are volunteers and we do not have access to Microsoft support cases.

I would try removing Office again, possibly through a manual uninstallation if the Uninstall support tool fails to do it properly (see https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/manually-uninstall-office-4e2904ea-25c8-4544-99ee-17696bb3027b).

Run the System File Checker https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/using-system-file-checker-in-windows-365e0031-36b1-6031-f804-8fd86e0ef4ca before trying to reinstall Office.

Answer 2

Which steps have been tested so far? For example, did they test an online repair (see https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/7821d4b6-7c1d-4205-aa0e-a6b40c5bb88b)?

Are you sure that the preinstalled version of Office is in fact a full version, and not just a trial?

Do you have access to an account to which Office has been tied?

Answer 3

Thank you very much for your suggestions, Stefan Blom.

I didnt follow your suggestion to do a manual uninstall of Office because 1) the engineers already tried to do a very thorough uninstall and reinstall, and 2) Manual uninstall process seemed very long, error-prone and involved editing the registry.

I can report that Office is working now. I believe the issue was that Office updating was not working, and following the directions to Fix Update Errors resolved it. Then trying to open a docx file, because its at that point that Office Update runs (on first use after install), and it worked!

Thanks again.

Answer 4

Which steps have been tested so far? For example, did they test an online repair (see https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/7821d4b6-7c1d-4205-aa0e-a6b40c5bb88b)?

Are you sure that the preinstalled version of Office is in fact a full version, and not just a trial?

Do you have access to an account to which Office has been tied?

Yes, they tried online repair.

They tried "Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant for Office 365" (SetupProd_OffScrub.exe), which is strange, since the product is not 365 but an Office install.

And the version of Office was not the trial version, but a paid for version (not 365 subscription). When I said pre-installed, I was referring to the Windows 'operating system', not the MS Word application.

And yes, I have access to the account to which Office has been tied.

Do you want to take a go at it? Case #1035166240. There you can see all the details of the engineers trying and failing.

Do you know more than the engineers? Is there something you would try that they havent thought of?