Unable to launch FFXIV/Launcher due to the following error

As soon as I click the FFXIV launcher I get this error box that appears and says:

AXWIN Frame Window: ffxivlauncher.exe - Ordinal Not Found

The ordinal 459 could not be located in the dynamic link library urlmon.dll


This error just recently appeared out of nowhere since my last session a day ago. I've done nothing different, but yet it just happened to appear. I click it 9 times until the pop-up window goes away, but then this appears:

FFXIV Launcher

A system error has occurred: 200.
http://frontier.ffxiv.com/arr_win/in...=2014-06-27-07

The launcher closes down and nothing happens. I've scoured Google for a day and all the solutions are either not related at all to the FFXIV launcher/game or do not work.

I am stuck, I even tried a fresh re-install. Please help.

It's likely an issue with MSIE... either malware has corrupted things, or Microsoft ninja'd a Windows Update on you that is tripping it up. This happens from time to time with users who have automatic updates enabled. Think the last snafu was with a handler for video or something that hooked into MSIE that tripped it up.

The launcher is built around the MSIE framework, so even if you are using a different browser, it can impact you because it gets updates when Windows Updates happen. Even if you disable the browser in Win8 via DISM, the OS still uses it's core components as it is part of the Windows Shell. Check your updates log to see if you spot anything for MSIE that you may be able to roll back. Sometimes you need to roll them back incrementally luntil the problem goes away (or just roll them all back and then roll forward incrementally until it breaks) to find the update that tripped it up.

Alternatively, you could try a repair install of MSIE, or upgrade it to a newer version if you are still on an older one. Or you could try manually recovering just the archived urlmon.dll in the driver cache if you are familiar enough with it (may be easier to do from a linux boot disk now though, stupid Windows File Protection is a pain).

Last ditch effort is the old System Restore or restore from other backup media if you use something else.

Thank you Raist, you helped direct my search for a fix and the solution was related to Internet Explorer. Unfortunately for me that was after I have uninstalled FFXIV (yay for 140 min downloads) and it was totally a last ditch effort out of frustration because I have no happiness with that useless browser called IE.

But what can you do? I wanted to play FF so it's a small price to pay.