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nsweeney29
nsweeney29
Participant
March 20, 2026
Answered

InDesign Fails to Launch After Update on Windows 11 with Error 0x0000142

  • March 20, 2026
  • 4 replies
  • 883 views

Every month once Indesign is updated, our whole company is unable to open adobe. They get the error "indesign.exe - application error. The application was unable to start correctly (0x0000142). Click OK to close the application." This has been an on going issue for a few months now. The temp fix is to run a repair on the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable which fixes it until the next update comes out. This is for windows 11. Is there a more permanent fix for this? 

 

 

    Correct answer Abhishek Rao

    Hi ​@nsweeney29,

     

    Thanks for sharing the details, and sorry to hear you’re running into this issue. Adding to the expert’’ suggestion, I’d like to let you know that this has been identified as a bug and our product team is actively working on a permanent fix. In the meantime, you can refer to this moderated post for more context and updates: https://community.adobe.com/questions-671/indesign-v21-not-starting-after-update-win-11-897997?postid=7505433#post7505433

    Please let me know if you notice any change in behavior or have any additional observations.

     

    I’ll keep you posted as soon as we have further updates from the team.

    Abhishek

     

     

    <Marking as correct for better visibility on the thread>

    4 replies

    D
    defaultazrke13ypsoo
    Participant
    May 19, 2026

    We’ve been experiencing this for some time now too. It really puts a hiccup in our work flow and is costly to keep submitting tickets to I.T. I hope it can be resolved soon.

    P
    pauls84916905
    Participant
    April 14, 2026

    We are seeing this with two users that use InDesign every month patches are installed. Have to remote in after and repair the C++ Redistributable. Any perm fix for this from Adobe?

    Abhishek Rao
    Community Manager
    Abhishek RaoCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
    Community Manager
    March 20, 2026

    Hi ​@nsweeney29,

     

    Thanks for sharing the details, and sorry to hear you’re running into this issue. Adding to the expert’’ suggestion, I’d like to let you know that this has been identified as a bug and our product team is actively working on a permanent fix. In the meantime, you can refer to this moderated post for more context and updates: https://community.adobe.com/questions-671/indesign-v21-not-starting-after-update-win-11-897997?postid=7505433#post7505433

    Please let me know if you notice any change in behavior or have any additional observations.

     

    I’ll keep you posted as soon as we have further updates from the team.

    Abhishek

     

     

    <Marking as correct for better visibility on the thread>

    mquintero087@hotmail.com
    mquintero087@hotmail.com
    Participant
    May 15, 2026

    Hi, I just want to see if there are any updates here with this? 

    I'm am engineer at an MSP, and having my team constantly receive calls for InDesign Fails to Launch After Update Error 0x0000142. The temp fix works, but Repairing the C++ redistributable 2015-2022 x64 every 2-3 weeks for 100 computers since last December is a lot of hours for something that should have a permanent solution after at least 6 months of people reporting this. Any progress from the Adobe team here?

      Abhishek Rao
      Community Manager
      Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      May 19, 2026

      Hi ​@mquintero087@hotmail.com,

       

      Thanks for following up, and I completely understand the frustration here, especially with the repeated impact across so many systems.

      At the moment, this issue is still under active investigation with Microsoft, and we’re working closely with them to help identify and resolve the root cause as quickly as possible. I understand the current workaround of repairing the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable is not ideal in enterprise environments managing a large number of machines.

      In the meantime, could you please try installing the latest supported Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable runtime from here and check if that improves the behavior:
      https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist

      I’ll continue to keep this thread updated as soon as we have any meaningful updates or a more permanent resolution available from the team.

       

      Thanks again for your patience and for sharing the additional deployment impact details.

      Abhishek

      Mike Witherell
      Community Expert
      Mike WitherellCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      March 20, 2026

      Hi NSweeney,

      In addition to fixing the Visual C++ Redistributable, what is your company doing related to Windows Updates? Are the February and later patches in place? Temp folders are being emptied out occasionally?

      https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/crash-on-launch.html

      Mike Witherell
      nsweeney29
      nsweeney29Author
      Participant
      March 20, 2026

      Yes, we have mandatory monthly patches. Not sure about the temp folders being emptied. 

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