The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect.

[Nikola1123]

Woke up today, turned on the pc and when I tried running Steam and Google Chrome this message pops up " The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please use the application event log or use the command line sxstrace.exe tool for more detail "

I used the event viewer and this message pops up " Activation context generation failed for "System Default Context".Error in manifest or policy file "C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\manifests\x86_microsoft.windows.gdiplus_6595b64144ccf1df_1.1.10240.16603_none_d15a3826af6dca5f.manifest" on line 0. Invalid Xml syntax. "

I am unsure if that's the exact thing that I need to check but those are the most recent errors. I tried googling for help and people said to download some C++ stuff but the issue is, when I do download them and press run that message pops up and I am unable to do so. I have no idea what to do here...

 

[yoji]

don't want to be a gloom merchant - but I started to get these side by side errors on my wifes machine about a year ago.. . I spent a lot of time/effort trying fix but I never got to the bottom of it and ended up doing a complete/clean reinstall of windows.
Hope you find a better solution.

 

[Nikola1123]

don't want to be a gloom merchant - but I started to get these side by side errors on my wifes machine about a year ago.. . I spent a lot of time/effort trying fix but I never got to the bottom of it and ended up doing a complete/clean reinstall of windows.
Hope you find a better solution.

This will be a last resort although with how hard it seems for me to be able to find a fix I fear it will have to be done.
However, how would I go about completely reinstalling Windows, considering I don't own the CD?

 

[dark_lord69]

don't want to be a gloom merchant - but I started to get these side by side errors on my wifes machine about a year ago.. . I spent a lot of time/effort trying fix but I never got to the bottom of it and ended up doing a complete/clean reinstall of windows.
Hope you find a better solution.

This will be a last resort although with how hard it seems for me to be able to find a fix I fear it will have to be done.
However, how would I go about completely reinstalling Windows, considering I don't own the CD?

Did you buy or build your computer? If you bought the computer it likely came with windows and you are entitled to it, from both Dell and HP you can order the windows DVD's for just the cost of shipping. If you built the computer and don't have a copy of windows then it may be a more difficult situation unless you are running windows 10 in which case you can just download windows.

 

[Nikola1123]

don't want to be a gloom merchant - but I started to get these side by side errors on my wifes machine about a year ago.. . I spent a lot of time/effort trying fix but I never got to the bottom of it and ended up doing a complete/clean reinstall of windows.
Hope you find a better solution.

This will be a last resort although with how hard it seems for me to be able to find a fix I fear it will have to be done.
However, how would I go about completely reinstalling Windows, considering I don't own the CD?

Did you buy or build your computer? If you bought the computer it likely came with windows and you are entitled to it, from both Dell and HP you can order the windows DVD's for just the cost of shipping. If you built the computer and don't have a copy of windows then it may be a more difficult situation unless you are running windows 10 in which case you can just download windows.

I have windows 10,so I just go to microsofts site and get the Windows 10 files again?