Inspiring

Answered

Indesign v21 not starting after update | Win 11

Forum|Forum|4 months ago
October 27, 2025
7 replies
9624 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 Nicola - Print House

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.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your continued updates. This issue has been logged as a bug, and our product team is actively working on a fix.

To help investigate this further, we now need diagnostic information from a system that is currently experiencing this issue, before any repairs or reinstallations are performed. This will help the team understand what is causing InDesign to fail to launch after the update.

If you are still seeing this problem, please collect the following details from your machine.

First, generate the Windows Update log:

Open Windows PowerShell
Right-click Start and select Windows PowerShell (Admin)
Run this command:

Get-WindowsUpdateLog

This will create a file named WindowsUpdate.log on your Desktop. Please save this file.

Next, export the Event Viewer logs:

Open Event Viewer
Go to Windows Logs > Application
Go to Windows Logs > Setup
Go to Windows Logs > System

In each section, click Filter Current Log and look for:

MsiInstaller | WindowsUpdateClient | SideBySide | Application Error

After filtering, click Save All Events As and export the logs.

Then, check for system file corruption:

Open Command Prompt as Administrator
Run this command:

sfc /scannow

Wait for the scan to complete and note the results.

Once you have gathered these files, please save them in a single folder, zip the folder, and upload it to a public cloud service such as Google Drive or Dropbox. Then share the download link here or via DM if the information is sensitive.

This information will help the product team identify the root cause and move closer to a permanent solution.

Thank you for your patience and support. Looking forward to your update so we can take this forward.

Abhishek

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 HouseAuthorCorrect answer

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

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