So I was just re-installing a machine (Windows XP SP3 x32) in the office and I got to the point of setting up the OpenVPN connection (so I was almost done). Problem was that when I installed OpenVPN 2.0.9 and executed the EXE, it crashed with “The application failed to initialize properly (0xc000007b).”. I tried uninstalling and re-installing OpenVPN. When that didn’t work, I then tried upgrading to OpenVPN 2.1 RC_7. Again, that didn’t work. I tried other stupid things like trying to copy the files from another machine. Different reboots/installs/etc. Nothing worked and nothing helpful on Google. I even stopped by #openvpn in a vain hope that they knew something. While they were helpful — no joy.
Eventually I made the random guess that it could be a piece of software called “Embassy Security Center” that was installed for TPM (Trusted Platform Module) and Biometric use. So I uninstalled it. What do you know… OpenVPN works. Thank gawd!