What the heck is 0xC0000095?
That ugly hex number is STATUS_INTEGER_OVERFLOW. It means some program tried to shove a number into a variable that can't hold it. Think of a car odometer flipping from 99999 to 00000—except the car crashes instead of just rolling over. Windows throws this when an app does arithmetic that overflows an integer type (like an int or long) and the code isn't handling it.
I've seen this bite people running oddball third-party utilities, older video editing tools, and even a custom line-of-business app a client's accountant swore by. The trigger usually is a specific input—like a huge file size, a date calculation, or a network packet with a weird length.
Good news: you don't have to be a programmer to fix it in many cases. Let's go step by step, cheapest fix first.
Step 1: The 30-second Fix—Reboot and Run as Admin
Yes, I know it sounds cliché. But I've had a client whose AutoCAD plugin crashed with 0xC0000095 every morning until we rebooted the print server. A fresh start clears out any leftover corrupted state. So:
- Save your work.
- Restart Windows.
- Try launching the app again.
If it still crashes, try running the program as administrator. Right-click the exe, choose Run as administrator. Some apps need elevated privileges to access certain resources, and that alone can dodge the overflow path.
Still crashing? Move on.
Step 2: The 5-Minute Fix—Update Drivers and Runtimes
Most times, 0xC0000095 isn't in your app's core logic—it's in a graphics driver or a shared library. Specifically, I've seen it tied to GPU drivers and old Visual C++ redistributables.
Update your graphics card driver
Go to NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel's site (whatever you have) and grab the latest driver. Don't rely on Windows Update—it's often months behind. Had a client last month whose 3D rendering tool kept hitting 0xC0000095; a fresh NVIDIA driver fixed it instantly.
Reinstall Visual C++ Redistributables
Many apps depend on these. A broken or old version can cause integer overflows in their internal math. Here's what to do:
- Open Settings > Apps > Installed apps.
- Search for “Microsoft Visual C++”.
- Uninstall every version you see (both x86 and x64).
- Download the latest from Microsoft's official site—grab the vc_redist.x64.exe and vc_redist.x86.exe.
- Install both, then reboot.
That's solved it for half my clients who hit this error in random utilities.
If the app still dies, we go deeper.
Step 3: The 15+ Minute Fix—Code-Level Investigation
If you're a developer or you're dealing with custom in-house software, you'll need to open up the code. This error is a bug—plain and simple. The fix is to add overflow checks or use bigger data types.
Where to look
Check any arithmetic that involves user input, file sizes, or loop counters. Common culprits:
- Multiplying two 32-bit integers into a 32-bit result.
- Adding to a value that's already at
INT_MAX(2,147,483,647). - Converting a 64-bit number to a 32-bit variable without a check.
For example, in C++ you might have:
int width = getWidth();
int height = getHeight();
int area = width * height; // overflow if product > 2^31-1
Instead, use a 64-bit type or add a check:
long long area = static_cast<long long>(width) * height;
if (area > INT_MAX) { /* handle error */ }
If the code is in C#, you can enable checked arithmetic:
try {
int result = checked(a * b);
} catch (OverflowException ex) {
// handle
}
Or disable it globally by setting <CheckForOverflowUnderflow>true</CheckForOverflowUnderflow> in your project file, but that might just turn a crash into a thrown exception—still better.
Debug with a stack trace
Don't guess. Get the stack trace from the crash dump. Use Windows Event Viewer to see the faulting module. Go to Event Viewer > Windows Logs > Application, look for the error and note the module name. If it's not your code, it's a third-party DLL—update that component.
You can also use WinDbg or Visual Studio to open the dump file and see exactly which line caused the overflow. That's the real fix—patch that line.
When to give up and blame the vendor
If the app is off-the-shelf and none of the above worked, check for updates. The vendor knows about this bug—they just haven't shipped the fix. File a support ticket, and include the exact error code and what you were doing when it crashed.
One last trick: if the app is 32-bit, try the 64-bit version if available. I've seen that dodge the overflow entirely because 64-bit integers have a much higher ceiling.
Don't let this crash drive you nuts. Nine times out of ten, it's a driver or a missing runtime. Good luck.