Does anyone know what this error message means and how to fix it?

My laptop was fine yesterday until this morning I turned it on. Every time I clicked on anything that had to do with getting online like a internet browser, online game, or instant messenger had an error message that pops up.
“The application has failed to start because it’s side by side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log for more detail.”

What’s this mean and how do I fix this?

EDIT The error message pops up any time I click on any type of program