Application failed to start - side-by-side configuration incorrect

HI, this is Windows Vista system. I am using this since a year and now and never had any problem until last week. Since i dont remember if anything went wrong, my most of the applications are giving me problems. Now whenever i try to open any program, it use to give me an error message saying:

"The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application log for more details."

The problem is only with the third party applications like Adobe reader, Phototshop, etc. Rest of Microsoft's built-in apps, tools and games work fine. For troubleshooting i checked the event viewer and found the following error message listed:

"MMC could not create the snap-in. The snap-in might not have been installed
correctly. Name: Event Viewer. CLSID:
FX{b05566ad-fe9c-4363-be05-7a4cbb7cb510}"

Any help would be appreciated.

First of let me explain the cause of the problem. In Windows there is a file called "Manifest" where side by side architecture uses a trick to call a special system file instead of the regular Vista system file such as any .dll. According to your Error message mentioned above says that finding that special dll written for that application is not working somehow.

As per troubleshooting you should you should try uninstalling all Adobe products, remove their left over fiels as well from the registry using disc cleanup and re-install them again. BTW, is ths problem only with Dobe products or all Third party applications? If yes, then something has changed those special application files. Perhaps disk corruption, perhaps conflict with something new. You are probably on the right track, trying reinstalls. I realize you probably don't have 'original media' for the ASUS Splendid Bachache, but I would guess that was it.

To solve this problem follow the below steps given:

1. To open the Registry Editor, click the Start button and type “regedit.exe” (without the quotation marks) and press the ENTER key. If you see the User Account Control dialog box appear, click Continue.
2. On the left side, expand the tree structure until you find the registry key that starts with "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\COMPONENTS\Winners\x86_policy.9.0.microsoft.vc90.crt_".
3. Expand the key above.
4. Below that key, you should see a 9.0 key. Select the 9.0 registry key.
5. In the right pane, make note of the number you see in the Data column for the row where the Name is set to (Default), in case you need to revert to this number later.
6. Look through the list of numbers in the Name column and find the highest number.
7. Double-click the (Default) string value to open the Edit String dialog box.
8. Replace the number in the "Value data" box with the highest number you saw in step #6. Click OK.
9. On the File menu, click Exit to close the Registry Editor.
10. After completing step #8 the issue may be resolved. If you continue to see the same problem restart the computer. You may also need to follow the steps below to correct the file association error message.

For more information visit this website - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2525435

The error that you are getting usually happens when your computer is missing the proper C++ runtime components for your type of Operating System whether it is 32bit or 64bit. So download the below updates to solve this issue.

Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package 32bit
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/e...displaylang=en

Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package for 64bit
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/e...displaylang=en

Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package 32bit
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/e...3-37bf0912db84

Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package 64bit
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/e...f-9350143d5867