Adobe apps (Photoshop / Premiere / Illustrator) failing to launch

Typical symptoms

• "The program can't start because VCRUNTIME140.dll is missing from your computer"
• "The program can't start because VCRUNTIME140_1.dll is missing"
• Premiere / After Effects error on launch
• Adobe apps crashing back to the desktop

Official safe fix steps

1. Install the latest VC++ 2015-2022 Redistributable

   All Adobe desktop apps are built with Visual Studio and depend on the vcruntime140 family. Install VC_redist.x64.exe from learn.microsoft.com (Adobe apps are 64-bit).

2. Repair from the Adobe Creative Cloud desktop client

   In the Creative Cloud desktop client, each app has a ⋯ menu — choose "Other options → Repair" or "Uninstall and reinstall". This is far more reliable than patching a single DLL.

3. Make sure your GPU driver is current

   Premiere, After Effects, Lightroom depend on GPU acceleration; old drivers can cause dxgi.dll load failures. Update from the NVIDIA / AMD / Intel official driver pages.

4. Add the Adobe install folder to your antivirus whitelist

   Some antivirus tools delete Adobe-bundled DLLs. Check the quarantine, restore the affected Adobe files, and add the install folder to the trusted list.

DLLs commonly seen in this scenario