How to troubleshoot Common Application issues

[Xena]

Please help me in troubleshooting common Application problems, these common application are very basic problem but sometimes that becomes very irritating as we cannot let go without solving those problem permanently please guide me.

[Otto]

You may receive a variety of errors indicating problems reading the disc or copying specific files. You may receive messages similar to the following:

<program> is not a valid win32 application.

or

A required file kernl32.dll was not found.

Quit unnecessary software
Other programs may interfere with the reading of the disc, for example, anti-virus, firewall or anti-crash software.

1. Quit all visible programs.
2. Right-click each icon in the Taskbar area (near the Windows clock), then click Exit, Quit, Close, Disable, etc if available.
3. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to display the Close Program window. If any program other than Explorer is listed, click it, then click Remove. Repeat this step until all programs except Explorer have been removed. Explorer is the Windows user interface.

source: Microsoft

[Kerwin]

Use an administrator account to install the program
Many programs must be installed by using an administrator account. This is because many programs were written for use with Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition, or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition. These operating systems did not have an administrator or limited user account.

Log off all users except the account that will install the program
The Fast User Switching feature is new to Windows XP, and most older programs were not designed to support this feature. If multiple users are logged on to your computer, log off everyone except the account that will install the program.

Use the most current version of the Microsoft Virtual Machine (VM) for Java
If the program uses the Microsoft Virtual Machine (VM) for Java, you may have to download the most current version of the VM.

for more info: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/285909