The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000142) when you try to open the Windows Command Prompt.

You might encounter the following error message when you try to open the Windows Command Prompt:

 

The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000142)

According to my investigations done by using Google search, this error might be caused by Microsoft ISA Server or bugs inside the Command Prompt itself.

 

If you are very sure that your problem is not related to Microsoft ISA Server (please check from "Add/ Remove Programs", see whether you got installed this Microsoft ISA Server or not), then you can try to use the following hotfix. What I can tell you is, this fix resolved my problem:

 

Details of this hotfix: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950312

Request to download the hotfix: http://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=950312&kbln=en-us