Application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000715)

Question

_{Wednesday, July 11, 2018 1:10 PM}

I have a remote computer that had some kind of hardware failure it seems or power loss. Anyways, after this happened my Office installation is completely messed up. We currently have Office 365 Business Premium installed. Outlook, Word, Excel, etc all open up and have an error: The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000715). Click OK to close the application. I have tried uninstalling/reinstalling, quick/online repair, running the program o15-ctrremove.diagcab, trying to open the the applications on another profile, removing certain folders/files/registry keys according to this page: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/manually-uninstall-office-4e2904ea-25c8-4544-99ee-17696bb3027b?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US 

Any suggestions would be most helpful. Thank you.

All replies (4)

_{Thursday, July 12, 2018 4:17 PM ✅Answered | 2 votes}

Hi，

Thank you for your feedback. I might need to do a further analysis for your device.

Does this happen when the machine is using a local account in a domain environment? Do you have any group policies that affect Office in any way?

Error 0xc0000715 is related to symbol links that cannot be followed because their type is disabled. I got some information from the Internet:

There was a GPO in place that seems to break Microsoft Office apps. It’s an Admin template that enables remote link to remote target symbolic links. For reasons that I cannot say, this prevents office applications from loading. Disabling this GPO allows the programs to open without a problem.

You can try this method.(Method Provider：Fredrik Meyer)
Search the computer to find Local Group Policy Editor .The exact name and location of the Group Policy Object wasn’t specified in the post, but finding it in the Group Policy Editor was rather straightforward: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Filesystem > Selectively allow the evaluation of a symbolic link.

Edit the GPO ,enable the Local Link to Local Target type (as you can see in the screenshot above). Then reboot your PC, check if you can open office normally.

Please try to tell me whether the method is feasible. I'm looking forward to seeing your reply.
If you have any question or update, please feel free to let me know.
Best Regards,
Herb Gu

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_{Thursday, July 12, 2018 9:28 AM}

Hi,
In view of the problem you have encountered, and the attempts you made, I give the following suggestions, please follow to see if the problem can be solved.

Firstly, log on to the computer directly with the admin account please.

• Use Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant for Office 365 to troubleshoot this issue. You can get the tool from Support and Recovery Assistant for Office 365 download page. Please refer to Fix Outlook and Office 365 issues with Support and Recovery Assistant for Office 365 for help.

• Start the Office app in Safe Mode. If the Office app doesn’t start in Safe Mode, the problem isn’t with add-ins. Try repairing Office or uninstalling and reinstalling it instead. If that still doesn't work, you should have the latest device drivers installed on your PC. See More: I get a "stopped working" error when I start Office 2016 or 2013 applications on my PC

• Temporarily turn off antivirus software, try to start Office apps, and if you still can't, try to open Office applications after performing a clean boot in Windows. See more: How to perform a clean boot in Windows

If you have any question or update, please feel free to let me know.
Best Regards,
Herb Gu

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Click here to learn more. Visit the dedicated forum to share, explore and talk to experts about Microsoft Teams

_{Thursday, July 12, 2018 2:41 PM}

Tried clean boot, safemode, antivirus and still the same error. The Support and Recovery Assistant did not help either. It appears it checks it when the app is open. Since I can't even get the app to open, this wasn't working.

_{Thursday, July 12, 2018 5:01 PM}

This computer is in a remote location and is not on a domain. I did the steps above and it seems everything is working! Thanks for your help. 

My next crazy question is, how the heck could this have changed? The computer is completely isolated, no Direct Access, no VPN and no domain or local group policies are done to this PC.