Before I continue, let me be clear that I love my Kindle – I own two – but the Kindle for PC application has been frustrating me on my Windows 7 machines.
On three separate Windows 7 machines I always get the “Amazon Kindle For PC Application has stopped working” message either installing or running the application.
Fortunately getting it to work isn’t too difficult – though I do look forward to the day when this simply “just works”.
First, don’t “run” the installer from the Amazon website. Download it as a file – this will be called “KindleForPC-installer.exe”
Right-click on KindleForPC-installer.exe and select Troublesheet compatibility.
The Program Compatibility wizard will launch
Click then click on Try recommended settings.
And now click Start the program. You can dismiss the Program Compatibility wizard, it isn’t any more use after this point.
This will get the application installed. You can go ahead and register at this point. (Keep reading though)
You are NOT DONE. Things will work fine for now, but if you close the application and restart it, you’ll get the same “Amazon Kindle For PC Application has stopped working” error.
We have to fix it so that it we are using the right compatibility settings every time the program launches. Fortunately this is not hard.
Find the “Kindle for PC” on the Start Menu.
Right click it and select Troubleshoot compatibility
That same wizard will launch, and again click Try recommended settings.
Now click Start the program (do not close the Program Compatibility wizard).
The Kindle application will successfully launch, but ignore it and go back to the Program Compatibility wizard and click Next.
Click Yes, save these settings for this program.
Then, click Close.
Now you can start the Kindle Application successfully every time.