program runs in safe mode but not in normal mode for Win7 in a virtual box

I recently installed a program on Win7 (hosted on a virtual box that runs on a Linux machine). The program runs correctly in Windows safe mode (no network) but fails to start in normal mode (0xc0000142 error). The same program works fine on other machines on Win7. I've tried to make a clean boot with msconfig with only system services checked but the program still fails to launch. What should I try next?

Edit: I resorted to trial and error and solved the problem by uninstalling several old and unnecessary programs that were not, as far as I know, related to the new one.

For my understanding, does anyone know how uninstalling programs that had not been run in months might have resolved the issue?