A quick note for anyone encountering similar misery with Windows 7 updates, failed installations, and TrustedInstaller.exe gobbling CPU. Here's a solution that does not involve reinstalling Windows.
My Windows 7 64-bit PC failed to install an update to Paint.Net a few weeks ago – mildly irritating at the time, but in fact just the first in a long line of problems with the same underlying cause. I then started noticing that TrustedInstaller.exe was running at around 50% of my CPU for hours at a time (one core of two), and my Event Log (Event Viewer > Windows Logs > Application) was getting loads of “Information” messages from “Windows Error Reporting” like the following:
Fault bucket , type 0
Event Name: WindowsWcpOtherFailure3
Response: Not available
Cab Id: 0
Problem signature:
P1: 6.1.7601
P2: base\lstring\lblob.cpp
P3: RtlTranscodeLBlobs
P4: 2221
P5: c0000161
P6: 0xe2a94a52
P7:
P8:
P9:
P10:
Attached files:
C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CbsPersist_20111127072435.cab
C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CbsPersist_20111202195623.cab
C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CbsPersist_20111206223453.cab
C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CbsPersist_20111210112002.cab
C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CbsPersist_20111213214632.cab
C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log
C:\Windows\servicing\Sessions\Sessions.xml
C:\Windows\winsxs\poqexec.log
C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\Scm\SCM.EVM
C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\FilterList.log
These files may be available here:
Analysis symbol:
Rechecking for solution: 0
Report Id: f8c2fdf4-28a3-11e1-8771-001a4d536a18
Report Status: 0
Also, when I tried upgrading Office 2007 to 2010, it just bailed out and rolled back every time.
After scouring the web for answers, I found lots of people having similar problem with Vista and Windows 7, with many saying this would require a re-installation of the operating system. But also I quickly found the “System Update Readiness Tool for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems” and downloaded from here http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=20858
Running this outputs this file C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CheckSUR.log which records what problems were found and whether they could be fixed.
I was getting these lines:
…
Checking Component Store
(f) CSI Corrupt Identity 0xC0000161 (not UTF8) amd67_microsoft-windows-i..stomloggi/gbinaries_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_0c741d2872a20a44 Bad identity
(f) CSI Manifest Missing 0x00000002 amd67_microsoft-windows-i..stomloggi/gbinaries_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_0c741d2872a20a44.manifest amd67_microsoft-windows-i..stomloggi/gbinaries_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_0c741d2872a20a44
(f) CSI Missing Identity 0x00000000 identity amd64_microsoft-windows-i..henticationbinaries_31bf3856ad364&35_6.1.7600.16385_none_39dd2292"22c1d9e
(f) CSI Could Not Open file 0x0000007B winsxs\Manifests\amd64_microsoft-windows-i..henticationbinaries_31bf3856ad364&35_6.1.7600.16385_none_39dd2292"22c1d9e.manifest amd64_microsoft-windows-i..henticationbinaries_31bf3856ad364&35_6.1.7600.16385_none_39dd2292"22c1d9e
(w) CSI Replacement File: CreateFile Failed 0x0000007B winsxs\Manifests\amd64_microsoft-windows-i..henticationbinaries_31bf3856ad364&35_6.1.7600.16385_none_39dd2292"22c1d9e.manifest amd64_microsoft-windows-i..henticationbinaries_31bf3856ad364&35_6.1.7600.16385_none_39dd2292"22c1d9e
(w) CSI Replacement File: CreateFile Failed 0x0000007B winsxs\Manifests\amd64_microsoft-windows-i..henticationbinaries_31bf3856ad364&35_6.1.7600.16385_none_39dd2292"22c1d9e.manifest amd64_microsoft-windows-i..henticationbinaries_31bf3856ad364&35_6.1.7600.16385_none_39dd2292"22c1d9e
(w) CSI Replacement File: CreateFile Failed 0x0000007B winsxs\Manifests\amd64_microsoft-windows-i..henticationbinaries_31bf3856ad364&35_6.1.7600.16385_none_39dd2292"22c1d9e.manifest amd64_microsoft-windows-i..henticationbinaries_31bf3856ad364&35_6.1.7600.16385_none_39dd2292"22c1d9e
(w) CSI Replacement File: CreateFile Failed 0x0000007B winsxs\Manifests\amd64_microsoft-windows-i..henticationbinaries_31bf3856ad364&35_6.1.7600.16385_none_39dd2292"22c1d9e.manifest amd64_microsoft-windows-i..henticationbinaries_31bf3856ad364&35_6.1.7600.16385_none_39dd2292"22c1d9e
(w) CSI Replacement File: CreateFile Failed 0x0000007B winsxs\Manifests\amd64_microsoft-windows-i..henticationbinaries_31bf3856ad364&35_6.1.7600.16385_none_39dd2292"22c1d9e.manifest amd64_microsoft-windows-i..henticationbinaries_31bf3856ad364&35_6.1.7600.16385_none_39dd2292"22c1d9e
(w) CSI Replacement File: CreateFile Failed 0x0000007B winsxs\Manifests\amd64_microsoft-windows-i..henticationbinaries_31bf3856ad364&35_6.1.7600.16385_none_39dd2292"22c1d9e.manifest amd64_microsoft-windows-i..henticationbinaries_31bf3856ad364&35_6.1.7600.16385_none_39dd2292"22c1d9e
Summary:
Seconds executed: 688
Found 4 errors
CSI Could Not Open file Total count: 1
CSI Manifest Missing Total count: 1
CSI Missing Identity Total count: 1
CSI Corrupt Identity Total count: 1
CSI Replacement File: CreateFile Failed Total count: 6
Unavailable repair files:
winsxs\manifests\amd67_microsoft-windows-i..stomloggi/gbinaries_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_0c741d2872a20a44.manifest
winsxs\manifests\amd64_microsoft-windows-i..henticationbinaries_31bf3856ad364&35_6.1.7600.16385_none_39dd2292"22c1d9e.manifest
Now this all looked rather suspicious, and after checking files on a Windows 64 bit laptop, I concluded that “amd67_microsoft-windows-i..stomloggi/gbinaries_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_0c741d2872a20a44” was surely supposed to be
“amd64_microsoft-windows-i..stomloggingbinaries_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_0c741d2872a20a44” (I’ve marked the changed characters in bold and red).
So where were the bad strings coming from? A registry search revealed this key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\COMPONENTS\DerivedData\Components\amd67_microsoft-windows-i..stomloggi/gbinaries_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_0c741d2872a20a44]
Since all the despairing comments on web forums were suggesting I was heading towards a reinstallation of Windows, I decided nothing to lose and exported then deleted this registry key.
I then re-installed the “System Update Readiness Tool” and found that the lines about the corrupt identity had disappeared.
After a reboot, lo-and-behold I found I could install Windows Updates without TrustedInstaller running for hours, and without the bad entries in the Event Log. Wven better, Paint.Net installed without incident. And best of all, Microsoft Office 2010 upgrade run sweetly.
Phew. I’ve no idea what could have caused the registry corruption in the first place, or whether my PC is really fixed, but it is a lot better than it was this morning!