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I'm using Windows 8. When I try to use SimpleAssemblyExplorer Windows pops-up a message, and doesn't allow me to run that application. I tried to run it with the compatibility options; Windows 7 & XP, neither worked.

Since SAE projects seem to be inactive, there is no way to test the new version.

How can I get rid of this message and get the program to run?

The text reads "This app can't run on your PC. To find a version for your PC, check with the software publisher."

Here is a screenshot:

Windows 8 nag

RomanSt
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Jones
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  • Please post a screenshot of the message in question. There isn't any reason this application should not work on Windows 8. **This question has nothing to do with the modern user interface so I removed that tag.** – Ramhound Dec 12 '12 at 12:37
  • Well, I found the reason, that It seems, I have x64 app, which don't have any clue on the name. I downloaded x86 and it worked fine. – Jones Dec 13 '12 at 05:24
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    I think you should post your solution as an answer, and restore the screenshot in your question. This to help anyone else with a similar issue. – galacticninja Dec 13 '12 at 05:39
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    Ok; I'll do it. – Jones Dec 13 '12 at 08:45

6 Answers6

39

In my case, by mistake I had overwritten the exe file with a 0KB file. And trying to run this caused the same exact message

Dinesh Rajan
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    The same in my case, except I haven't figured out what caused the zero byte file - was the output of a failed Visual Studio build attempt I suppose. – RedFilter Jun 19 '15 at 13:30
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    I ran a batch file that i copied from the command prompt, with the extra C:\....> at the beginning apparently this copies a new 0KB file over the existing one. This error message is the worst, should just say invalid exe or something. – TechnoCore Nov 03 '15 at 18:24
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    Same thing happened to me, but with winhttpcertcfg.exe. – Scott Mitchell Apr 07 '16 at 23:06
  • I was sure this didn't apply to me, but it made me look and sure enough this was it. – chrismay Jul 26 '16 at 18:22
  • It's uncanny how many people this has happened to. There must be something somewhere that's causing this. A bad example in some documentation or something. – BenCr Nov 21 '16 at 13:50
  • Have the same problem. What the hell is that? How is it possible? – Čamo Dec 07 '18 at 11:29
  • Wow, thanks! No idea why I fat fingered the file to 0kb. – Daniel Williams Jul 18 '19 at 19:16
  • Heavy FFS here (Fat finger syndome)! I have some idea how I might have done it. Was in Win10 console, wrote something, wanted to paste so right click -> paste (but hit mark all because of said FFS), was fast so right-clicked again and hit paste - except the second right click copyed all in console which then ran, and I guess something like must have executed that piped 0kb into my .exe. Thanks for saving me so much headache with system restore etc.. :) – cwap Nov 10 '20 at 07:14
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Well, the above error message (shown in the screenshot) is not very detailed. However, the problem is: using a different architecture than Operating System architecture. In my case, I wanted to (or tried to) launch the x64 executable whereas the OS is x86.

To solve the issue, I had to download the x86 version of the same software (the app), and that worked fine. The confusion arises because Windows 8 doesn't provide much detail for troubleshooting the problem.

Community
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Jones
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    Feel free to accept your own answer, as to help others that are looking for a solution. – pleinolijf Dec 13 '12 at 09:05
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    I also had this happen when running a 64-bit program on a 32-bit machine. Gotta love 'em "friendly" messages which fail to tell you what actually went wrong. – RomanSt Feb 24 '13 at 11:25
  • Any particular reason I'd be getting this on an x64 system for what I thought was a 64-bit app? (Maybe it's the old itanium 64 bit?) – ebyrob Oct 29 '13 at 07:51
8

Corrupted installer is another cause for this error message. See Corrupted files are the cause of Windows 8 "This app can't run on your PC" error.

rememberjack
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4

A zero-length EXE file will also cause this error.

empty
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3

I'm not sure if anyone else has pointed it out. This might be also caused by you running a 16-bit executable file on a 64-bit OS. Like in my case here for an old software setup. You can usually get more info from the Windows Event Log:

enter image description here

ahmd1
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0

Hmm, compatibility settings usually fix that. For anyone in the future, if the problem still persists, there are a couple more reasons why the application might not launch. Heavy disk fragmentation, admin access, and malware can also be the causes. Defragmenting your disk and doing a scan with anti-virus software helped me solve an issue in the past. And yeah, as people mentioned, architecture differences can be a pain in Windows. Hopefully, this helps.

Josh Ross
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