Sysprep fatal error Could not load DLL DscCore.dll[gle=0x0000007e]

Azure VM, Win Server 2012 was created from snapshot of image copied from another region. Installed asp.net apps, all is working except sysprep, need to create a new image. setupact.log has:

Error [0x0f0085] SYSPRP LaunchDll:Could not load DLL DscCore.dll[gle=0x0000007e] Error [0x0f0070] SYSPRP RunExternalDlls:An error occurred while running registry sysprep DLLs, halting sysprep execution. dwRet = 0x7e[gle=0x0000007e] Error [0x0f00ae] SYSPRP WinMain:Hit failure while processing sysprep cleanup external providers; hr = 0x8007007e[gle=0x0000007e]

diagerr.xml has this at the end:

Err="126" ... Msg="RunExternalDlls:An error occurred while running registry sysprep DLLs, halting sysprep execution. dwRet = 0x7e" PID="3656" TID="924" Con="" ... Msg="WinMain:Hit failure while processing sysprep cleanup external providers; hr = 0x8007007e" PID="3656" TID="924" Con=""

There a few work arounds for similar errors when using sysprep which you can find via simple internet search. But the real solution is that the image has some corrupted registry entries and you should rebuild from a fresh one to ensure further corruption does not occur.

Even if you do manage to resolve the error and get sysprep to work the image could still be unstable and I would not suggest using it.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929828/an-error-message-occurs-when-you-run-sysprep-generalize-in-windows-vis