Solved Side-by-Side Configuration INCORRECT

[mikeholdsworth]

We are running the Windows 7 Ultimate OS, 32 bit software.
Up to a week ago everything is working O.K., including 'Calibre', 'Glary Utilities', 'Audacity', 'Kindle' and 'Open Office Writer, Base, Calc and Draw' software.

After that the general software was O.K., but the list above is not working. In every case the message on the screen is that the 'C:\Program Files\Amazon\ Kindle.exe' OR 'D:\Program Files\Calibre.exe' OR 'D:\Program Files\ Glary Utilities 5\Integrator.exe' or the other programs is:-

The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log or use the command-line sxstrace.exe tool for more detail.

I have done downloading software again, with the the list, but is still not working.
I have done the 'regedit.exe' software but the table is O.K., with the registry values are right.
Please can you help me.

 

[bbinnard]

You have a serious problem. Your best bet is to try to restore from a Restore Point that was saved before the problem started. If that doesn't work or you don't have such a Restore Point you will likely have to re-install Windows and all your software. There's a small chance you can boot from the Win7 distribution disk and try System Repair, but I don't have high hopes for this.

The error message you are getting refers to problems with the WINSXS (Windows Side by Side) subdirectory. This is the place Win7 stores copies of DLL files that get installed with different applications. A DLL file is library (Dynamic Link Library) of executable modules used by different programs.

In old versions of Windows different DLL modules were deemed as reusable or shareable, with the hope that only one copy would be installed on a system. (That's when disk space was expensive and MS wanted to conserve it.) But what happened was different software makers would install updated version of a DLL and this would break other programs that relied on an older version. As a resul MS would get zillions of tech support calls and spend hours fixing things. So they decided to "fix" the prblem by keeping a copy of each DLL installed by a program.

This works pretty well except for 2 things: (1) WINSXS gets increasingly large over time, and there is nothing anyone can do about it, and (2) bad things start happening if WINSXS gets messed up. This is the problem you have.

There are no utility programs for inspecting/fixing/dealing with WINSXS, so you can't fix problems it has. Restoring back to a good version is your best hope.

Good luck.

 

[mikeholdsworth]

Its working again

I have done the Windows Update and it is working again.
I don't know why it is.
Thank you everybody.