Error 0xc000007b fix

10 years or so later this TRASH GARBAGE game caused me so much grief by refusing to launch, I'm forcing myself to write this guide in hopes it'll help other people who encounter this error.

Symptoms

When launching game normally through Steam and official launcher or whatever, seemingly nothing will happen. If you go to game folder (*steamapps\common\Borderlands 2\Binaries\Win32) and try to launch directly through game executable (Borderlands2.exe), the aforementioned error is going to pop up. IT SUCKS.

What's the cause of this error?

I don't know, I'm tech illiterate. In my case some DirectX .dll file was missing somehow and game wouldn't launch. Trying to reinstall it or do repair didn't help. How does this even happen???

FIXING THIS HOPEFULLY

Okay, actual juicy bits start here.

1. To find out which .dll you might be missing download Dependencies.

https://github.com/lucasg/Dependencies

2. Do the usual drill of unarchiving it somewhere, I shouldn't even mention it.

3. Start DependenciesGui.exe
Go to File>Open and point it to Borderlands2.exe at Steam\steamapps\common\Borderlands 2\Binaries\Win32

4. You'll see this on the left side. It's pretty self-explanatory, I guess. What you might be missing is denoted with a question mark. In my case it's D3DX9_43.dll.

5. Download what you're missing from somewhere. Look it up. Just make sure to get 32-bit version, because this game is old.

But isn't downloading .dll files like that from the internet dangerous?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But apparently those files also come with the game. Thanks Blainezy for the comment o7.
6. Put that sucker in the folder with Borderlands2.exe
That should be it.

Game should be playable???

If it didn't work, I don't know what to tell you.
But if it did work, go pew-pew shoot enemies and loot stuff. Godspeed.

If anyone has insights about what else can be done, I'm all ears. I've been reinstalling DirectX and Microsoft runtime libraries for hours with no avail before stumbling on this solution. """Fixes""" you find on Google are all fake. I actually found about this Dependencies program from Steam discussion. Here's the original thread. Bless people who figured it out.

[Blainezy]

Holy shit! Took me a bit to figure out. You have all the files just borderlands didn't put the files in the folder for you.
YOU DON'T HAVE TO DOWNLOAD OFF RANDOM SITES

for D3DX9_43.dll
go to Borderlands 2\Binaries\Redist\DXRedistCutdown\Jun2010_d3dx9_43_x86.cab and click the "d3dx9_43.dll" file and extract it into folder with the borderlands.exe

for D3DCompiler_43.dll
go to Borderlands 2\Binaries\Redist\DXRedistCutdown\Jun2010_D3DCompiler_43_x86.cab and click the "D3DCompiler_43.dll" file and extract it into folder with borderlands.exe

for X3DAudio1_7.dll
go to Borderlands 2\Binaries\Redist\DXRedistCutdown\Feb2010_X3DAudio_x86.cab and click the "X3DAudio1_7.dll" file and extract it into folder with borderlands.exe

for XAPOFX1_5.dll
Go to \Borderlands 2\Binaries\Redist\DXRedistCutdown\Jun2010_XAudio_x86 and click the "XAPOFX1_5.dll" file and extract it into folder with borderlands.exe

[bo eisa]

thnx bro u made my day

[bumszli]

Worked like a charm, thank you :D

[△ꑭ Mephistopheles ꑭ△]

ty bro <3
u helped so much

[Riedel]

SIGMA GUCCI THANK YOU