Tim's Tech Tips

 Problem:

Hey Tim!
[...]Here's my issue: I am using Windows XP. SP2, and I keep getting this error message that application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000022). lots of programs on my computer are failing to open! i cant open my antivirus either to check if its a virus but i dont think ive downloaded anything recently...
[...]the problem happens with lots of different programs including "uistub.exe" when i try to open my ****** antivirus, ccapp.exe, oscheck.exe, pifsvc.exe, etc etc etc. [...] what do i do!?!?

-Anonymous

Solution: 

Hello Anon; Thank you for providing the 0x***... error code!
There are two common reasons for the manifestation of this problem. One is a particular issue with a Microsoft patch that occurs only in XP SP2 (which leads me to believe that this is likely your issue since you have XP SP2) - and the other is a particular virus. Luckily, I think I have a solution for both.

Click "Read more" for the solution!

This problem is usually caused when you are, for whatever reason, denied access to some important .dll files in the system32 directory.

First, since this is the solution to the most likely cause of this issue, we'll try a tool called "cacls.exe".

• Click on your start menu, and then click RUN. (Alternatively, press the windows key, and "R" together) In the run line, type “cmd” (no quotations) and hit enter.
• A command prompt window should open
  • NOTE: On Vista, you’ll have to open “cmd.exe” as an administrator, by typing cmd.exe into the start menu, right clicking it, and running it as administrator. However, this particular issue should not occur on Vista.
• In the command prompt window, type the following series of commands. You may copy and paste them.
  • Note that “CTRL+V” does NOT work with a command prompt. You must right-click and select “paste” after copying these commands one at a time.

cd "c:\windows\system32" [enter]
cacls msvc*.dll [enter]

 Your command prompt (with some scrolling) should look something like this:

This is a list of DLLs beginning with "msvc" and ending with ".dll", in the system32 folder. You'll need to issue another series of commands (one for each DLL in the list) to make sure that they all have the permissions set properly. In the list for my computer, you see the following DLLs:

• msvcirt.dll
• msvcp50.dll
• msvcp60.dll
• msvcp71.dll
• msvcr71.dll
• msvcrt.dll
• msvcrt20.dll
• msvcrt40.dll

Now, for each of these files in the list on your computer, you must enter the following command:

cacls FILENAME.DLL /E /G BUILTIN\Users:R

Replace "FILENAME.DLL" with the DLL's file name.
Remember, you must do this for every DLL in the list. In my case, I would have to type this out 8 times, because I have 8 DLLs in the list. This means I would type the following 8 commands:

cacls msvcirt.dll /E /G BUILTIN\Users:R
cacls msvcp50.dll /E /G BUILTIN\Users:R
cacls msvcp60.dll /E /G BUILTIN\Users:R
cacls msvcP71.dll /E /G BUILTIN\Users:R
cacls msvcr71.dll /E /G BUILTIN\Users:R
cacls msvcrt.dll /E /G BUILTIN\Users:R
cacls msvcrt20.dll /E /G BUILTIN\Users:R
cacls msvcrt40.dll /E /G BUILTIN\Users:R

 After doing this for each DLL that was listed in your command prompt, reboot your computer. If the issue is persistent, it's likely caused by a threat on the computer. The only threat I've seen do this is a variant of, I believe, Vundo... I'm not certain about the name of the threat that was causing the problem, but I remember how I removed it: Smitfraudfix. 

Alternate solution:

If the above solution doesn't resolve the issue, then the problem is likely caused by a virus of some sort. The tool I've used to resolve this issue, when caused by a threat, is SmitFraudFix.
Here is a brief explanation of how to use SmitFraudFix:

1. Download SmitFraudFix at this link.
2. Save the file to your desktop. 
3. Open the program
4. Enter the number "4", and hit enter to make sure you've got the latest information. 
5. Type the number "1", and hit Enter to create a report of the infected files. The report can be found at C:\rapport.txt. If you want to identify the infection, you may find the information about it there.
6. Reboot the system in "Safe Mode" 
   1. You can do this by tapping F8 during start up, but the easiest method is to open MSCONFIG (start->run->type "msconfig"->hit enter) then select the boot.ini tab (or in Vista, just "BOOT".) and then check "/SAFEBOOT". Minimal should also be selected by default.
7. Open the smitfraudfix file again
8. Press the number "2" to clean the infected files it finds
   1. This may take some time, and any reports will be saved to the same rapport.txt file as before.
   2. If it asks you if you want to clean the registry, or anything else - press "Y" for yes; and hit enter. 
9. Open MSconfig and un-check "/SAFEBOOT" and then reboot (or just reboot normally if you didn't use msconfig) 
10. Open smitfraudfix once more, and one at a time, select options 3, and 5.

That's it!If you still have the problem, please let me know and I can get back to you with some more troubleshooting steps. Eventvwr would also be helpful to identify if this is a global issue, or just with certain programs.

[I've confirmed that the first solution resolved this issue]