The error “The specified module could not be found” happening in Windows 11

As far as the current situation is concerned, it can be considered whether the problem is caused by one of the following factors.

1. Corruption in your PC's disk Type: cmd from the Windows search box > Right click on Command Prompt and click run as administrator > Click Yes when prompted to confirm > Type chkdsk C: /f /r in the window and press Enter > Wait until the whole disk check process finishes and restart your computer.
2. Outdated Windows drivers Hold down Windows + X and open device manager to uninstall all drivers especially drivers for external devices and download the latest version of them and install them to your Windows 11.
3. The directory for installing dependencies If you are installing programs which are used as additional libraries in running some third-party application or it is some dependent program, it is advised that you check the directory where you are installing the program/ package. This is a very common scenario. For example, if you have a game which requires appuals.dll to be present to run, you should install appuals.dll in the game’s directory. This will prevent the game from throwing ‘the specified module could not be found’ because it will find the package. If you install appuals.dll in some other directory, the game wouldn’t know where to look. Hence the error. ***Note:***If you are getting the error because of specific DLL’s, you should download the DLL files or reinstall the dependency package in the location of the program which you are trying to run.
4. Uninstalling the device properly If you recently uninstalled some device not using the device manager, there are chances that whenever you boot your computer, the OS looks for the files required for that device’s operation but when it doesn’t find any, it pops an error. If you get an error like this in this condition, we can fix it by uninstalling the device properly from the device manager.
   • Press Windows + R, type: devmgmt.msc in the dialogue box and press Enter.
   • Once in the device manager, expand the category according to your case, find the device, right-click it and uninstall. When prompted, also delete its drivers.
   • Restart your PC after this operation and see if the error “The specified module could not be found” still pops up. Also, do a full power cycle.
   In some cases, if the problem still doesn’t get resolved, you have to remove the device-specific keys manually. There were several instances when after removing the printer, the files were not removed automatically and this caused the error message. Navigate to locations like the following: C: Windows / Users / (your name) / Roaming / Startup / Monitor Ink shortcut (delete this) or

       C: Windows / Users / (your name) / Roaming / Application Date / Startup / Monitor ink shortcut (delete this)  
   

Let me know if any update.

Sad to say re-installing the image did NOT solve the issue - the resource NOT found error reappeared after a few days - so far these fixes have failed to resolve the issue

1. terminal commands (gpupdate)
2. removing and reinstalling Photos and Movies & TV apps
3. re-installing the Win11 image

do you have any other suggestions?

Thank You

John Watters

So I just did this fix, couple of findings

The command for removing "Microsoft.Windows.Movies & TV" got a parsing error on the ampersand - I tried a few variations "&" and ("&") - but these tokens also got parse error

So went on the net and found this command for removing Movies & TV

"Get-AppxPackage *zunevideo* | Remove-AppxPackage"

This worked

Install from Microsoft Store was easy, install dates on the Photos and Movies & TV were updated to 1/13/2022, so this worked

The command to re-install also worked, however there were many messages about not being able to update, for example, sometimes "newer" version were already installed

> Type: Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

So I think it may be helpful to update the instructions for removing Movies & TV

Also, you may want to add a note to take a few restore points before doing this

Lastly, I've seen that there are "Win 11" versions of the Photos app? I could not tell from the download info if I was just re-installing the Win 10 version

So we'll see if the error re-emerges, usually happens in a week or so...

Thanks for your help

Thanks for replying - I'm seeing the same behavior, after "fixing" the error it eventually happens again - this is only happening on my Win 11 install - I still have an "old" desktop running Win 10 where this error has never happened 

FYI - I did some testing with various apps on my Win 11, here is what I found:

==============================================

PICTURES with extensions .jpeg, .jpg, .HEIC

App: "Photos"

Result: Error - Specified procedure could not be found

Apps: "Paint" and "Adobe Photoshop"

Result: Successful Display

=============================================

VIDEO with extensions .mp4, .MOV

App: "Movies & TV"

Result: Error - Specified procedure could not be found

App: "Windows Media Player"

Result: Successful Playback

The same problem here! For me the only way to resolve it is to remove the app via powershell and reinstall it. Than it works a few times, but the error will be back! I don't understand where the error message is coming from, because it's not with all the pictures. Some pictures will work with the photo app. Others will have the error message with the same file extension. It's the: "The specified procedure could not be found"-error. A fresh installed pc. It's only happening with pictures in the Microsoft photo app. I installed all the updates. I read many comments online with the same problem....

Just found out if I get the error-massage: "The specified procedure could not be found", then I doubleclick... rightclick -> open with -> choose other app: MS photos -> check always use this app to open .jpg. Than the photo app opens with the picture. If I dubbleclick (left) on the picture again, I get the error message. Strange...

I also really hope Microsoft brings back the 'un-combine/ungroup' option for the windows/folders on the taskbar, this is really annoying to me. I work with a lot of folders, it's not workable.. and than the search function has a lot of bugs (still)!! The (explorer) appcrashes come on Microsoft!