Zotero 5 installation in Windows 10

imflibrary
Hello,

I have a problem to install Zotero Stand alone in Windows 10.
The error message is "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b). Click ok to close the application."

Does anyone know why this error occurs in Windows 10?
Any comments and help would be appreciated.

Best

Sunghoon
  • dstillman
    No one else has reported this, but have you tried uninstalling Zotero (don't check the box to remove your data) and then reinstalling?
  • imflibrary
    We tested it on a brand new machine with Windows 10. No previous version has been installed on the machine.
  • dstillman
    Zotero 5.0 installs for me on a clean install of Windows 10, so I'd guess this is due to some sort of security software or institutional policy on the machine.
  • tchampney
    I am also getting the same error installing Zotero 5 standalone on Windows 10.

    "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b)."
  • cetchart
    Encountering the same problem still on a brand new Win10 installation trying to install 5.0.23!
  • adomasven
    Are you on a 32-bit version of Windows?
  • cetchart
    No, running 64 bit. Interestingly the installation from the website installer also fails on my desktop that I already previously installed zotero on. On that desktop, I cannot run the installer, but oddly I could use the check for updates feature to update to 5.0.23.
  • adomasven
    Do you get the "The application was unable to start correctly" error upon running the installer or is it after installation when trying to run Zotero itself?
  • cetchart
    Directly after running the file and the initial self extraction reaches 100%, then the extraction dialog disappears and I get the error. Thanks.
  • adomasven
    Are you behind a proxy? Have you tried downloading the installer with a different browser? It may be worthwhile (re)installing .NET and VC redistributables.
  • cetchart
    No proxy, and I've tried on both Edge and Chrome on both computers. Tried reinstalling the latest .NET and VC redists as well, no change unfortunately.
  • dstillman
    It probably won't help, but you can try 5.0.24, available now, which includes a slightly newer version of the Mozilla runtime.
  • cetchart
    Thanks for the idea, but no change with 5.0.24. I also just tried installing version 4 and it results in the same error. Just finding it crazy that it fails on two separate computers, one a year-old Win10 install that already has Zotero installed and updating, and another Win10 installation four days old...
  • dstillman
    Is there third-party (e.g., security) software you've installed on both machines? If these are institutional machines, are there security restrictions in place?
  • cetchart
    Nope, only running the built in Windows Defender, and I've tried installing Zotero with Defender's real time protection off (and the new anti-randomware protection off). The only thing that's new is that I installed the latest win 10 fall creators update on both. Also no security restrictions; they aren't on a domain and I installed Win10 Pro from Microsoft's ISO.
  • cetchart
    Fixed it. Turns out it's one of the new security features built into the new Win10 fall update, the "Force randomization for images (Mandatory ASLR)" security feature. Go to Windows Defender Security Center > App & browser control > Exploit protection settings. Set that to "off by default" (or perhaps configure zotero as an exception) and now it installs correctly. Annoyingly, Windows doesn't tell you when that feature is blocking a program, unlike the ransomware protection, which gives you an alert and an easy opt out.

    Thanks dstillman and adomasven for your ideas!
  • dstillman
    OK, great, thanks for troubleshooting this. Issue created — we'll see what we can do on our end.
  • Gurdas_Sandhu
    @cetchart I updated to Fall Creators Update a couple days ago, but in my case the "Force randomization for images (Mandatory ASLR)" is off by default. As also suggested by this article:
    https://www.howtogeek.com/329700/how-windows-defenders-new-exploit-protection-works-and-how-to-configure-it/

    Just curious if you had this update as part of the fast or slow ring, and not the public release?
  • aukevanheel
    I still have this problem.. the mentioned setting I cannot change as this is not allowed by my employer
  • khouse11
    0xc000007b same problem on Windows 11
  • bamsagodwin
    I have Windows 11 and I get the same error. I have tried all the suggestions here but none worked.
  • dstillman
    edited June 7, 2022
    @bamsagodwin: I'm not sure what you're referring to. There's one specific setting, mentioned by cetchart above. There may be other causes of the 0xc000007b error, but that's the only fix we're aware of.
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