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Inspiring
May 21, 2026

when attempting to open indesign and illustrator, I receive an application error message, labeled 0xc0000142

  • May 21, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 10 views
error message appears when attempting to open InDesign as well as illustrator

I have experienced this error when attempting to open InDesign and illustrator several times over the course of a few months now. There is a fix that I found through the Adobe forums that involves repairing the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable program files and it works temporarily, but after a few weeks the problem reappears. I have tried installing several versions of both programs to see if it is just affecting a specific version, but it does not appear to make a difference. Please assist when possible, as I require authorization from my company’s tech support department in order to perform the fix every time this problem occurs and it is interfering with my job. Thank you

    1 reply

    J E L
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 21, 2026

    HI ​@jasminet88, you are in the Photoshop forum, so your post might be moved to the Illustrator (or InDesign) forum. Meanwhile, try running a System File Checker. Here are the instructions: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system-files-79aa86cb-ca52-166a-92a3-966e85d4094e

     

    • Open Command Prompt as an administrator.

    • Run sfc /scannow.

    • After completion, run DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth.

    • Restart your PC.