Fix STATUS_SXS_FILE_HASH_MISSING 0xC0150027

Quick answer

Run sfc /scannow then DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth from an elevated command prompt. If that doesn't fix it, reinstall the app triggering the error.

What's actually happening here

Windows uses side-by-side (SxS) assemblies to manage shared DLLs and components. Every assembly has a manifest — an XML file that lists its files and their SHA-1 hashes. When you see STATUS_SXS_FILE_HASH_MISSING (0xC0150027), the system found a file referenced in the manifest but couldn't locate the hash entry in that manifest. The file exists, but the manifest is incomplete or corrupt.

What's tricky is that this isn't a typical "file missing" error. The file is there — the build stamp, the catalog, or the manifest itself got truncated or patched by something that didn't update the hash table. A third-party installer that merged files manually is the usual suspect. I've seen this most often with Adobe Creative Cloud updaters, Visual Studio redistributables, and badly-packaged VPN clients after a Windows update.

The real trigger is almost always a partial installation or an update that didn't fully commit. The assembly loader fails silently at startup, then surfaces this error when the app tries to use a resource from that assembly.

Fix steps

Step 1: Identify the failing app

Check the Windows Application event log. Open Event Viewer (eventvwr.msc), go to Windows Logs > Application. Look for an error event with source "SideBySide" and Event ID 33 or 63. The detail will show the manifest path, usually something like C:\Windows\WinSxS\manifests\amd64_microsoft.windows.common-controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.19041.1_none_4b5b2c3c2b2b2b2b.manifest. Write that path down — you might need to inspect it if the generic fixes fail.

Step 2: Run SFC and DISM

Open Command Prompt as Administrator. Run:

sfc /scannow

Let it finish. It'll check all protected system files and replace any that are corrupt. If it reports Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them, move to DISM.

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

DISM rebuilds the component store from Windows Update. This fixes manifest files, catalogs, and the hash database. The reason step 3 works after this is because SFC only checks files against their cached hashes, but DISM repairs the hash store itself — the very thing that's missing the hash entry.

Step 3: Reboot and test

Restart your computer. Try launching the app that failed. If the error is gone, you're done.

Step 4: Reinstall the application

If the error persists, the manifest corruption is inside the app's own assembly folder (not the system SxS store). Uninstall the app, delete any leftover folders in C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86), then reinstall from a fresh download. Don't reuse an installer you've had lying around — it could be corrupt.

Alternative fixes if the main ones fail

Use Windows Update to force a repair

Sometimes the fix requires a newer version of the shared assembly. Install all pending Windows updates, reboot, then try again. If you've deferred updates, that's often the root cause: the old assembly manifest doesn't match the new file that Patch Tuesday installed.

Manual manifest replacement

This is for advanced users only. If you know the exact assembly version that's broken (from the event log), you can grab a known-good manifest from another machine with the same Windows version. Copy the manifest and the associated .cat file (catalog) into the same manifest path. Then run sfc /scannow again to re-sign the hashes. Don't do this unless you're comfortable with the risk — a wrong manifest can break other apps.

System Restore

If the error started after a specific update, roll back with System Restore to a point before the update. This is the nuclear option: it reverts system files and the SxS store, but won't touch your personal files.

Prevention tip

The single best way to avoid this: never kill a Windows update or app installer mid-process. Let them finish. A crash during a cumulative update is the most common way manifest hashes get orphaned. Also, avoid downloading "runtime" packs from third-party sites — always use the official Microsoft redistributable downloads. I've seen more SxS errors from sketchy DirectX redistributables than from anything else.