VS2012 Error: The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b)

Question

I received the error "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b)" after attempting to run my exe file of my C++ SFML 32-bit program I built in Visual Studio 2012. I statically linked the SFML dlls in my project, but incorporated the following dlls along with my program:

libsndfile-1.dll
openal32.dll
msvcp110.dll
msvcp110d.dll
msvcr110.dll
msvcr110d.dll

What is the problem?

Answer 1

The actual error code that you encountered is 0xC000007B. That is the NTSTATUS error code STATUS_INVALID_IMAGE_FORMAT. That error arises, almost invariably, because the application is 32 bit and attempted to load a 64 bit module, or vice versa. In your case, you state that your application is 32 bit, so it seems that it is attempting to link to a 64 bit DLL. Use a tool like Dependency Walker to diagnose the module which has the wrong bitness.

I don't understand why you are distributing both release and debug versions of the MSVC runtime. You only need one, and that one should be the release versions. The files that end d are the debug versions. You are not permitted to redistribute them.

Answer 2

Error code 0xC000007B can also result if you run an application that has erroneously been statically linked with a .lib file that is an import library corresponding to a .dll (as opposed to a .lib file that is a static library). If you want to know more about the differences between a static library and an import library, see Why are LIB files beasts of such a duplicitous nature?

Answer 3

I was also facing the same problem yesterday. Then I installed the Redistributable setup for VS i.e. vc_redist.x86 for 32-bit machine, after that application start running. You can use either 32-bits or 64-bits setup according your machine.

May it'll help you. Thanks