application exception

0xC0000096 PRIVILEGED_INSTRUCTION

User-mode code tried to run a CPU instruction reserved for the kernel — corrupt binary, wrong architecture thunk, or malware-style packers. Legitimate apps almost never do this on purpose.

What to do about it

Reinstall from the vendor's site; discard cracked or repacked copies.
Scan with Microsoft Defender Offline.
Update the program if a known bad build is circulating.

Where you will see this

Windows Error Reporting writes this code into Report.wer files and app-crash minidumps when a program dies but Windows itself stays up. It is not a blue-screen stop code — for those see the stop-code library.

See which module threw this exception

Drop the program's .wer report or crash dump into the app-crash reader — the faulting module is usually the real story. Parsed locally.

Open the app-crash reader →