Many users who have Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Office installed on their Windows 10 and 11 computer have had to find a way to fix WINWORD.EXE bad image error with code 0xc000012f. This problem affects World (WINWORD.EXE), Excel, and also Outlook. Next, we will see how to solve it definitively..
Fix WINWORD.EXE Bad Image Error in Windows 10 and 11
Depending on the Office application that we open, when we encounter this error, we will see the following message, although it may vary depending on the app.
WINWORD.EXE - Bad Image
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\gfx. dll is either not designed to run on Windows or contains an error. Try to install the program again using the original installation media, or contact your system administrator or software vendor for assistance. error state
0xc000012f.
Install the latest Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package
This solution is quite simple and requires us to download and install the latest version of Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable on Windows. Once we do this, reboot the computer and launch the Office application, the problem should now be fixed..
Modify the AppInit_DLLs registry key
AppInit_DLLs is a mechanism that allows us to load an arbitrary list of DLLs into each user-mode process on the system. Logging allows us to see bugs that affect other software. In many occasions, this can be the key to corrupt the system and will end up causing errors.
The solution requires that we modify the value of AppInt_DLLs by leaving the value information field blank in the properties dialog. In the image that accompanies the article, we can see how we should do it. Although we must warn that the ideal is to make a backup copy of the Registry Editor before continuing..
Reset or repair Office apps
- The first thing we will have to do is open Settings by pressing the Windows key + i.
- Next, let's select Apps & Features.
- We scroll until we find the Microsoft Office installation and click on it.
- Then we will click Modify.
- Now we will have to choose “Quick Repair” or “Online Repair”, we can try both.
- To finish, we will click on Repair.
Additionally, we can do it from the Control Panel.
- We press “Start” and then we will write Control Panel.
- Let's click on Programs and Features.
- We will right click on the Office program that we want to repair and choose Change.
- Now let's click Repair > Continue. Office will start app repairs.
Once the process is complete, it is recommended to restart your computer before launching the application.