I’m not the only one with this problem and nobody have found a working solution for Windows 7 yet. I now request the collective wisdom of the blogworld to come up with a workaround for this.

This error is hindering the start of any console-related programs . Not even cmd.exe will run!

In my case I am trying to run gpg.exe of the GnuPG package for my Enigmail install in Mozilla Thunderbird. I have found two articles that I think are relevant, but I don’t feel confident enough to edit the registry in the way one of the “solutions” suggest and the other is a hotfix that isn’t made for Windows 7.

These links point to the articles:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960266/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824422/en-us

All solutions suggested by Microsoft themselves for this issue on other OSs mention this file, Winsrv.dll, as the culprit. This reference can also be found in the kb/824422-article above, since that is listed in that particular registry value.

I will not, ever, use System Restore to fix anything on my computer, so that is never a valid solution. I should be able to fix anything on a current system, with replacing files or editing system settings. There’s no telling what changes has been made since last restore point was saved and will be lost forever if I “go back”. So, please, don’t suggest using system restore. A full reinstall is a much safer way to go, but I’d rather not do that, again (I just installed Win7 to start using during the Christmas holidays).

I’ve added my findings on several forums to see if I can get some help there:

http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/23296-does-anyone-know-fix-0xc0000142-problem.html

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7programs/thread/2297ad07-4338-41ac-aa81-4a563474aaf4

I added it on my twitter too:

http://twitter.com/no_substitute

Somewhere, someone, anyone should be able to come up with something that will work. Maybe someone can get their friend/relative who works at Microsoft to raise attention to the problem.

Thank you in advance for any and all help you can give.

/Kim