Inspiring

Answered

Indesign v21 not starting after update | Win 11

Forum|Forum|7 months ago
October 27, 2025
10 replies
15021 views

I installed the latest update to version 21, and InDesign won't launch. It doesn't give any errors, but it won't start. It doesn't do anything at all. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling it, but that didn't work. Version 20 works perfectly, even the beta version 20.6. I tried reinstalling it by deleting the preferences, but that didn't work. I tried reinstalling the Creative app and reinstalling InDesign, but that didn't work.
Bridge does the same thing, but it gives me error OXC0000142. InDesign, on the other hand, doesn't have any errors. Old Bridge works, but the beta version doesn't

I have windows 11 last updated
What can I do?
Thanks a lot
Nicola

Bug

Correct answer Abhishek Rao

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your continued patience and for sharing all the details and reports so far. We understand how disruptive this issue has been, especially in enterprise environments, and truly appreciate your cooperation during the investigation.

This issue has now been formally logged as a bug, and our product team is actively working in collaboration with Microsoft to investigate and resolve it. Current findings suggest the issue may be related to VC Runtime corruption occurring during or after certain Windows updates.

As an interim workaround, some affected users have reported that repairing the Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime resolves the launch issue temporarily and allows InDesign to launch successfully again. You can refer to the following HelpX article for the repair steps:
https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/crash-on-launch.html#unexpected

Additionally, Microsoft has recommended installing the latest supported VC Runtime version (v14.50.35719):
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170#latest-supported-redistributable-version

To help the engineering teams investigate this further, we now need additional diagnostic logs from systems that are currently experiencing the issue before any repair or reinstallation steps are performed.

If you are still encountering this problem, please help us collect the following information from the affected machine:

1. Generate Windows Update Logs

Open Windows PowerShell as Administrator
Run:

Get-WindowsUpdateLog

This will generate a WindowsUpdate.log file on your Desktop.

2. Export Event Viewer Logs
Open:

Event Viewer > Windows Logs > Application
Event Viewer > Windows Logs > Setup
Event Viewer > Windows Logs > System

For each section:

Click Filter Current Log
Filter for:
- MsiInstaller
- WindowsUpdateClient
- SideBySide
- Application Error

Then:

Click Save All Events As
Export the filtered logs

3. Check System File Corruption
Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run:

sfc /scannow

Please save or note the results after the scan completes.

4. Capture Side-by-Side (SxS) Logs
Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run:

sxstrace trace -logfile:%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\sxstrace.etl

After reproducing the issue, stop tracing and run:

sxstrace parse -logfile:%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\sxstrace.etl -outfile:%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\sxstrace.txt

5. Collect VC Runtime Installer Logs
Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run:

copy "%TEMP%\dd_vcredist*.log" "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\"

This will copy the VC Redistributable installer logs to your Desktop.

6. Collect Microsoft Setup Diagnostic Logs (Recommended by Microsoft)
Microsoft has requested additional setup diagnostics using their official log collection utility.

Steps:

Download the Microsoft log collection utility:
https://aka.ms/getTSS
Extract the downloaded package
Open PowerShell as Administrator
Run:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -scope Process -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Force

Then run:

.\TSS.ps1 -Collectlog DND_SetupReport

This will generate a C:\MS_DATA folder containing diagnostic logs.

Once all files are collected:

Please place them into a single folder
Compress the folder into a ZIP file
Upload it using any public cloud sharing service such as Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, WeTransfer, etc.

You can share the download link directly in this thread. If the information is confidential, feel free to send it to me via DM instead.

These logs are extremely important and will help both Adobe and Microsoft narrow down the root cause and accelerate the investigation.

Thank you again for your patience and support while we work toward a permanent resolution.

Best,
Abhishek

Graphic35908868q1x9

Participant

Is there a feature pack download option for Windows 11?

Jennifer-N

Participating Frequently

I have done all of these steps and absolutely nothing has worked.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @Jennifer-N,

Sorry to hear you’re still facing this, and thanks for trying the earlier steps. Since repairing the VC++ Redistributables didn’t help, could you please try installing the latest supported version of the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable (v14.50.35719) from the link below and then relaunch InDesign?

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170#latest-supported-redistributable-version

Let me know how it goes.

Abhishek

Jennifer-N

Participating Frequently

This also has not worked and has already been tried.

Antonio353080900iwd

Participant

This issue remains an issue each time an InDesign Update goes through. indesign error 0xc0000142.

I repair the C++ every time and still have issues and it’s getting tedious and annoying. Any idea what we can do to resolve this? If it’s on your end Adobe, please resolve! It’s been an issue since December for me. Thanks!

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @Antonio353080900iwd,

I completely understand how frustrating this must be, especially if you’re running into it after multiple updates. Please know that this issue is currently being investigated internally with Microsoft as well.

To help the product team move this forward and identify the root cause, they need the diagnostic details requested earlier from a system where the issue is currently occurring. Could you please share those details as outlined in my highlighted response here:
https://community.adobe.com/questions-671/indesign-v21-not-starting-after-update-win-11-897997?postid=7505433#post7505433

Your assistance in sharing these details will be very helpful for the investigation.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

Abhishek Rao

Correct answer

Community Manager

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your continued patience and for sharing all the details and reports so far. We understand how disruptive this issue has been, especially in enterprise environments, and truly appreciate your cooperation during the investigation.

This issue has now been formally logged as a bug, and our product team is actively working in collaboration with Microsoft to investigate and resolve it. Current findings suggest the issue may be related to VC Runtime corruption occurring during or after certain Windows updates.

As an interim workaround, some affected users have reported that repairing the Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime resolves the launch issue temporarily and allows InDesign to launch successfully again. You can refer to the following HelpX article for the repair steps:
https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/crash-on-launch.html#unexpected

Additionally, Microsoft has recommended installing the latest supported VC Runtime version (v14.50.35719):
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170#latest-supported-redistributable-version

To help the engineering teams investigate this further, we now need additional diagnostic logs from systems that are currently experiencing the issue before any repair or reinstallation steps are performed.

If you are still encountering this problem, please help us collect the following information from the affected machine:

1. Generate Windows Update Logs

Open Windows PowerShell as Administrator
Run:

Get-WindowsUpdateLog

This will generate a WindowsUpdate.log file on your Desktop.

2. Export Event Viewer Logs
Open:

Event Viewer > Windows Logs > Application
Event Viewer > Windows Logs > Setup
Event Viewer > Windows Logs > System

For each section:

Click Filter Current Log
Filter for:
- MsiInstaller
- WindowsUpdateClient
- SideBySide
- Application Error

Then:

Click Save All Events As
Export the filtered logs

3. Check System File Corruption
Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run:

sfc /scannow

Please save or note the results after the scan completes.

4. Capture Side-by-Side (SxS) Logs
Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run:

sxstrace trace -logfile:%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\sxstrace.etl

After reproducing the issue, stop tracing and run:

sxstrace parse -logfile:%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\sxstrace.etl -outfile:%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\sxstrace.txt

5. Collect VC Runtime Installer Logs
Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run:

copy "%TEMP%\dd_vcredist*.log" "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\"

This will copy the VC Redistributable installer logs to your Desktop.

6. Collect Microsoft Setup Diagnostic Logs (Recommended by Microsoft)
Microsoft has requested additional setup diagnostics using their official log collection utility.

Steps:

Download the Microsoft log collection utility:
https://aka.ms/getTSS
Extract the downloaded package
Open PowerShell as Administrator
Run:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -scope Process -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Force

Then run:

.\TSS.ps1 -Collectlog DND_SetupReport

This will generate a C:\MS_DATA folder containing diagnostic logs.

Once all files are collected:

Please place them into a single folder
Compress the folder into a ZIP file
Upload it using any public cloud sharing service such as Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, WeTransfer, etc.

You can share the download link directly in this thread. If the information is confidential, feel free to send it to me via DM instead.

These logs are extremely important and will help both Adobe and Microsoft narrow down the root cause and accelerate the investigation.

Thank you again for your patience and support while we work toward a permanent resolution.

Best,
Abhishek

Raphaelle2590239688ei

Participant

My team is also experiencing this issue, and I have contacted our IT department to assist with collecting the requested data. Hoping for a solution that will not need to involve IT after every update. Thank you

IT Dave LRW

Participant

Yeah, we have this issue and i found this solution on my own. but it doesn't resolve the underlying issue.
i have 25 Indesign users. You can imagine the frustration of having to do this every time indesign updates for everyone. None of the users have admin privileges, so i have to uninstall everyone's Redistributable manually and having to input my creds for each one… there's both x64 and x86 for each of the 6 redistributables... 12 for each user, to uninstall and 12 to reinstall…. ive just worked it out, thats 600 times i have to input my creds ! (25x24). for each time it updates… and ive done it twice already! and today its started happening again, so before i go about doing all that again, thought to best check again and see if there's a solution… Nope !

On the bright side of things… I did a bit of analysis on this 1st users machine. It only seems to be the MS Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable - 14.44.35211 , that is causing the issue. so at least i don't have to do all of them again, just the 2 of the 12 (still 100 times though).

That is only on the 1st machine today, ill see if its the same for the rest as and when it starts on the rest.

for those that also hate reinstalling all the redistributables … there is a quicker way to install them all in one go after you have uninstalled them - its called - Microsoft Visual C++ All-In-One Runtimes by W1zzard @ TechPowerUp
which can be found - https://www.techpowerup.com/download/visual-c-redistributable-runtime-package-all-in-one/
you just have to copy the extracted folder locally on the said machine and run the Bat file as admin… this has helped me a boat load.

But ADOBE, you need to sort your updates out… If your updates cause the issue on the redistributable, then its your responsibility to fix the issue. Not palm it off as “not your issue, its a different software problem”. You're providing professional software to professionals, its time you started acting like a professional !

Earthling v42.0

Inspiring

Having this problem again with InDesign v21.0.1 update.

N

Nicola - Print HouseAuthor

Inspiring

This update is for fixing a bug that I find with tabulators, in the v21.0 if you move a tab, the other tabs on the right are deleted.

I had a session with a technical support, than I send a video and they resolved it with this update.

Earthling v42.0

Inspiring

Adobe must have a new QA/QC leader. I am also having problems with Illustrator. I can't copy/paste. Been that way since July. Both old and new versions.

R

rett999

Participant

I have this error (0xc0000142) with both with Premiere Pro 25.0 and now Indesign 21.0. The new Photoshop and Illustrator versions that updated yesterday are working. I have restarted. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the software. Does know why these two would have this error? Other forums seem to say just use old versions but I have team members who update and need the latest version.

Peter Spier

Community Expert

Have you tried repairing the C++ redistributables as suggested?

N

Nicola - Print HouseAuthor

Inspiring

I solved the problem with the help of technical support. It took me two hours to chat with a chatbot, and the operator knew as much as I did. Finally, they put me in touch with real technical support.
The solution was this:

Repair the C++ Redistributables:
1. Open the Control Panel
2. Go to Programs and Features
3. Find Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables
Scroll through the list to find entries such as:
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable
Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable
Microsoft Visual C++ 2012/2013/2015-2022 Redistributable
(There may be multiple versions installed.)
4. Repair Each Version
Select a version.
Click "Change" at the top.
In the installation window, choose "Repair."
Follow the instructions to complete the repair.
Repeat this for each version you want to repair.
Reboot your system after repairing all files.
This fixes everything.

toddt43397558

Participant

This fixed it for me also! Thank you!!!

N

Nicola - Print HouseAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks a lot,
I've already tried all these steps, only the clean up is missing, but I didn't want to lose the settings of the previous version that works and have to reset printers, printing preferences, etc., which are not saved when exporting the settings. Do you have any other ideas?

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @Nicola - Print House,

Thanks for confirming. When using the Cleaner Tool, your preferences are not automatically removed. You can manually back up the settings by following the below steps:

- Close all Adobe applications.

- Go to Location C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Adobe
- Copy the Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Illustrator 29 Settings folders to your desktop.

After backing up your preferences, you can remove or rename the folders in the original location to check if a corrupt preference might be causing InDesign to fail to launch.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

E

Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

Try resetting your preferences:

InDesign 19.3 and newer go to Preferences > General > and click on "Reset Preferences on Quit" and then quit and restart.

Or
Windows: Start InDesign, and then press Shift+Ctrl+Alt. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.
macOS: While pressing Shift+Option+Command+Control, start InDesign. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.
A dialog will appear asking to delete the InDesign Preferences, select 'Yes' on this dialog.

More in-depth cleanse of preferences

https://helpx.adobe.com/in/indesign/kb/indesign-preferences-support-file-locations.html

--------------

Reinstalling rarely fixes everything - you can do a complete reinstall using the
Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @Nicola - Print House,

Thank you for reaching out, and I'm sorry to hear about your experience. I hope Eugene's suggestions helped resolve the problem. If not, please try the suggestions shared in this help article (https://adobe.ly/4nIqyE1) and let us know if they help.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded