Thought I would add my own personal
“The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click on OK to terminate the application”
story to the masses out there, seeing as mine was not what it seemed to be at first glance.
I guess it started as it did for many, something broke on a server. In my case it was some SQL DB dumps. I logged onto the server and tried to launch the SQL management console and got the following error. I then tried to run the mmc console on it’s own and got the same error.
I did a quick Google search and most posts seemed to be the .net framework either missing a file or not being installed at all. I figured it was as good a place as any to start, so I tried to repair or remove and reinstall the .net framework on the machine. But attempts failed and resulted in the same error msg popping up. I assumed from this the the installer app relied on .net (chicken and egg scenario ?) and thought a little more about the problem. I wondered if I could determine which file was missing or damaged and attempt to replace it directly.
In times of broken apps I tend to turn to SysInternals for salvation. In this case it was procmon to the rescue (Mark Russinovich, what a genius). I launched the app on the affected server desktop.
I then added a filter to only include stuff that was being caused by ‘mmc.exe’
The I launched ‘mmc.exe’ from the Windows ‘Run’ on the start menu.
The initial output was as below. Highlighted were some lines that caught my eye due to their result column not being ‘SUCCESS’.
I performed the same process on a working system so I had a frame of reference for what a working output looked like. The first few failures seemed normal even on a working system. But this entry was unique to the broken system.
It seemed to be complaining about a file, ‘COMCTL32.DLL’. Oddly, the file did exist in the Windows ‘system32′ folder. But the entry was complaining about a very specific location, in the WinSxS folder. Navigating to this folder did indeed show the file to be strangely absent.
Reading up a little on the WinSxS folder, it allows different versions of the same DLL library to exist on the machine at the same time without getting in the way of each other (read Windows DLL Hell).
The folder in question implied I wanted version 5.82.3790.3959. I wasn’t quite sure where this exact version of the file could be obtained from, but I figured I would start with the original install media and work up from there. I got lucky first time. I extracted the file to a temporary location, and then copied it into the WinSxS folder.
I then attempted to relaunch the mmc console and presto, problem solved.
Any time you have an odd problem it’s worth initially running procmon and seeing what’s happening a little under the hood. You should also be aware of the other tools and how they can help you too.


















