WMI issues all of a sudden?Answered

Hi Wyatt,

All has been running very smoothly I must say, for quite a while now. All of a sudden this week I have had two support requests from existing users who found they were unable to use my app. Both of them had the old favourite CoInititializeEx failed and, strangely, both found that WMI wasn't running. These are average consumer types, so I don't think they've been fiddling with the services manager, so I wonder if this is something anyone else has experienced? Both on W10, neither thinks much has changed recently. I haven't been able to get either of them up and running, either, with running as admin not working and manually started WMI not working either.

Any ideas?

Full disclosure: I am still running 4.3.2.0 on our released versions. Is this an issue that's known to be fixed by the latest 4.4.4? If so, any breaking changes here? I still don't get any email updates about new versions, btw, I wish I did. Is there a blog type page somewhere that shows changes version to version and indiciates if anything is likely to break existing?

thanks,

Matt

Answer

Hey Matt,

Always start with the latest version. No breaking changes in several years.

It‘s hard to say what the problem is. Run your app as admin and it will automatically fix dumb user mistakes (like disabling WMI).

Thanks Wyatt. I do intend to release an update, but that is a non-trivial undertaking so I would like to be able to get these users up and running in the mean time. Running as admin has not worked in this case. Do you still have that diagnostic utility available? Perhaps I could get a bit more info that way. 

I am really just wondering if there has been some sort of Windows update that has caused this, or if it is just a coincidence that I got two of these support requests in a week after not having seen one for many months..

Answer

Do you still have that diagnostic utility available?

Nope, all diagnostics and fixing of bad user decisions are built right into TA / TF / TFS now. It’s cheaper for us to fix dumb user mistakes for all users than do it on a case-by-case basis.

or if it is just a coincidence that I got two of these support requests in a week after not having seen one for many months..

More likely a coincidence. Read the same blogspam saying how to make a computer “faster” or installed the same spam “cleanup utility”.

It’s not an update change. Microsoft products depend on WMI. They wouldn’t throw a wrench in their own software.

, edited

OK thanks Wyatt, but any idea why run as admin wouldn't work in these cases? It always has before, so something feels a little different here. Any ideas of something I can try in the time before I'm able to release an update?

but any idea why run as admin wouldn't work in these cases?

It should, with the latest TA.

Any ideas of something I can try in the time before I'm able to release an update?

To re-enable WMI? Open the Services app and re-enable it. If it’s not working they likely have a virus.

I'm sure the admin trick works OK with the version I am on (4.3.2), as it has worked before.

Both of these users did restart WMI, but it did not change the behabiour. I will try and get an update out to one of them tomorrow and see if that fixes thing.

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