An app has stopped working
Why is my laptop saying an app has stopped working?
Written by The CommonFixes team · fact checked by CommonFixes review desk
Last updated
Short answer
That message means the program hit an error it could not recover from, so Windows shut it down. The usual reasons are a damaged installation, a broken or half installed support package such as Visual C++ or .NET, an old graphics driver, a corrupted settings file for that program, or a system file that has gone bad. The Windows Event Viewer records exactly which file caused it, which turns the guessing into a straight answer. The quickest thing to try first: find out what actually crashed — Right click Start, choose Event Viewer, then Windows Logs, Application. Look for the red Error at the time it crashed. The Faulting module name line tells you the guilty file. If it names something like nvwgf2umx.dll it is the graphics driver, msvcp140.dll is Visual C++, and the app's own name means the app itself. Everything below follows from that one line. Most people are done in about 20 minutes.
Full walkthrough below: 7 steps for Windows, rated medium.
Sounds like this
- •A box appears saying the program has stopped working and then it closes
- •The same app crashes every time you open one particular file
- •It closes with no warning right after you launch it
Why it happens
That message means the program hit an error it could not recover from, so Windows shut it down. The usual reasons are a damaged installation, a broken or half installed support package such as Visual C++ or .NET, an old graphics driver, a corrupted settings file for that program, or a system file that has gone bad. The Windows Event Viewer records exactly which file caused it, which turns the guessing into a straight answer.
Work through these in order
0% done- 1
Find out what actually crashed
Right click Start, choose Event Viewer, then Windows Logs, Application. Look for the red Error at the time it crashed. The Faulting module name line tells you the guilty file. If it names something like nvwgf2umx.dll it is the graphics driver, msvcp140.dll is Visual C++, and the app's own name means the app itself. Everything below follows from that one line.
- 2
Repair the app instead of reinstalling straight away
Settings, Apps, Installed apps, find the program, click the three dots, Advanced options, and press Repair. If there is no Repair there, use Control Panel, Programs and Features, select it and choose Change then Repair. This keeps your settings and fixes most damaged installs in a couple of minutes.
- 3
Update the graphics driver if that is what Event Viewer named
Download it straight from Intel, NVIDIA or AMD rather than through Windows Update, and choose the clean install option during setup. Graphics driver crashes take down browsers, Office and games most often.
- 4
Repair the support packages
Install the current Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable, both the 32 bit and 64 bit versions, from Microsoft's own download page, and the latest .NET Desktop Runtime if the app needs it. If they are already installed, run the installer again and pick Repair. Half broken runtimes cause crashes in dozens of unrelated programs.
- 5
Repair Windows itself
Right click Start, choose Terminal (Admin), and run sfc /scannow. When it finishes run DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth, then restart. This replaces damaged system files and is worth doing whenever several apps crash rather than just one.
- 6
Clear the app's own settings folder
Close the app, press Windows and R, type %appdata% and press Enter. Rename the folder that carries the app's name, adding .old to the end, then start the app again. It builds a fresh profile. If that fixes it, a corrupted settings file was to blame, and you can pull your data back out of the old folder.
- 7
Start clean to rule out something else interfering
Press Windows and R, type msconfig, tick Selective startup, untick Load startup items, then in Services tick Hide all Microsoft services and disable the rest. Restart and test the app. If it behaves, turn the services back on in halves until the culprit shows. Third party antivirus and screen overlay tools are the usual suspects.
If none of that worked
If it only crashes with one file, the file itself is damaged, so try opening a different one to confirm. If everything crashes, uninstall the app fully, restart, then install a fresh copy downloaded from the maker's own site rather than a saved installer.
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Who wrote this and how we checked it
The CommonFixes team
Writer and researcher
We are a small group of people who spend our days repairing laptops and desktops for family, friends and small offices. Every guide here starts with a problem someone actually brought to us, and we only write down the steps that put the machine right.
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CommonFixes review desk
Technical editor
Before a guide goes live, a second person walks through it on a real machine and checks each instruction against the maker's own support pages. Anything we cannot confirm is removed rather than guessed at.
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This guide was last updated on 10 August 2026. If a step no longer matches what you see on screen, tell us on the contact page and we will test it again.
A gentle reminder: back up anything you cannot afford to lose before major repairs. If a step ever feels risky, stop and ask a technician. There is no shame in that.