"Failed to start service WMS. Program C:\Windows\wmi\WmiPrvSE.exe couldn't be launched. CreateProcess() failed: The system cannot find the file specified."
The above event code/message has been been plaguing me in the event log for the last few weeks.
Can anybody shed any light on this please with some possible solutions/directions ect.
Thanks
Are you perchance trying to access an older SQL Server? If so, you may find this support note from MS interesting and informative: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...exe-process-st. Otherwise, I don't see anything about a failure to launch the WMI Service Provider that really makes sense.
HTH,
--Ed--
Many thanks for the reply Ed. Although I am familiar with the purpose of an SQL server I'm struggling to understand how that applies in this particular case.
A few days ago my PC became unresponsive whilst in general use. I brought up the Task Manager to see if there was any issues causing this and noticed that WMiPRvSE.exe was hogging over 60% of available CPU. This continued for approx 30min until I got scared something was amiss so I took drastic action........... I pressed 'restart'.
Now for the next 3 days I have been getting the above error message in Event Manager and it keeps repeating every 3min. I had assumed the best thing to do was either "find the missing file" indicated in the message or, try to stop the error message repeating. Both options of which at this time are beyond my understanding. I am also at a lose to understand why there seems to be very little information on this error or the error ID 1010 related to this event?
Am I the only person ever to have suffered this?
I have the exact same issue. I restarted WmiPrvSE.exe as well in an attempt to reduce the CPU usage (bad mistake). Now WMI won't launch, because it can't find WmiPrvSE.exe at C:\Windows\wmi, even though the .exe is still located in that location. I'm also getting the error 1010 in Event Viewer.
Currently trying to see if the WmiPrvSE.exe is corrupted by replacing it with a WmiPrvSE.exe file from a clean system. Besides that, I haven't found a fix for it yet, but I'll keep you up to date if I do find one.
Thank goodness I'm not alone with this. I was beginning to think this was yet another 'clitch' that only I had and once more (it has happened several times in the past) there is no solution.
I did read one thread which tried what you are suggesting but this didn't seem to work either. It appears that the Wmi file needs to be specific to your OS.
Please, please keep me informed of anything you find.
Thnx
I can't find any info on this anywhere, either -- except for this thread! I'm going to post up on the MVP forums and see if anybody else knows anything there. I'll report back, yea or nay, but am hopeful that the group may come up with something, in its collective wisdom.
Stay tuned!
--Ed--
Thanks so much! I've not found much myself, especially no fix, but event manager refers to not being able to find C:\Windows\wmi\WmiPrvSE.exe, while I previously found WmiPrvSE.exe in the location C:\Windows\System32\wbem\WmiPrvSE.exe.
Turns out there are other locations for WmiPrvSE.exe (one more in C:\Windows\SysWOW64\wbem\WmiPrvSE.exe), all of which give an error message when activated: "Windows cannot find 'C:\location of WmiPrvSE.exe'. Make sure you've typed the name in correctly, then try again". All versions of WmiPrvSE.exe seem to not be found by Windows, even though I can physically see them in File Explorer.
Hence, I'd assume that the problem we're experiencing with WMI (or WMS) is definitely caused by WmiPrvSE.exe. It could maybe be a directory issue, as Windows can't find them? Anyhow, I'm still looking, but Google doesn't come up with much except for this thread.
I checked with another computer that wasn't experiencing this issue (also running the latest version of Win 10), but I can't even seem to find the C:\Windows\wmi folder on that PC. Don't think that's relevant though.
I downloaded the WMI Diagnosis tool from here, and ran it. It came up with a pretty long log, showing a bunch of errors that I can't fully understand. What I have gathered from it is that there's files missing in the WMI repository, which I've already verified and reset according to these instructions (I'm unsure of what else to do). I've also ran the sfc /scannow command in hopes to repair corrupted files, but it couldn't find any files in need of repair.
I've attached it to this post if anyone's interested. There's a lot of There's a lot of WMI connection errors in that seem to be caused by invalid permissions, but these are for ROOT/ 'namespaces', which I'm totally unfamiliar with so I won't touch them.
According to fellow MVP Nick Pellatt here's what may be up:
So, I did then what I should've done with the original post -- namely search out all the places where the WmiPrvSE.exe file resides on my healthy system(s). Here's how I responded:nick pellatt in reply to Ed Tittel – 35 minutes ago
Hi Ed :)This type of fault over the years has mainly been down to the windows update service or anti virus in which process begins to consume 60+% of CPU. I myself never ever encountered it in the first place so cant make any comment
you say The afore-cited executable still resides in its customary location (C:\Windows\WMI) ?
can you confirm that location as I myself don't have that file in that location on either windows 7/8/ or 10
I should add I very rarely have to go into this folder as I've never needed to but from what I am seeing (C:\Windows\WMI) doesn't exist at that location ?
So, on a 64-bit system the one in SysWOW64 is the one that should matter. So now I find myself asking instead "Why is the error complaining about a directory that doesn't exist?" Whoever's seeing this might want to try setting up the C:\Windows\WMI folder and populating it with the file, and see if that does anything.Hmmm. You could be onto something here. Likewise on my system(s), I find the WmiPrvSE.exe file only in the following folders:
1. C:\Windows\System32\wbem
2. C:\Windows\SysWOW64\wbem
3. C:\Windows\WinSxS\amb64_microsoft-windows-wmi-coreproviderhost...
4. C:\Windows\WinSxS\wow64_microsoft-windows-wmi-coreproviderhost...
We don't mess with the Windows Side-by-Side stuff directly, so what counts is are the 32- and 64-bit version in System32 and SysWOW64, respectively. I'll ask the forum posters to check there, to see if perhaps the file is truly MIA.
It's even stranger than it looks and sounds, I'm afraid. Shoot me a link to that WMI diagnostic tool, please, and I will poke around with that as well. Odd!
--Ed--
Here's the link to the diagnostics tool that I used. It says it isn't compatible with Win 10, but when run as a command it works just fine.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/down...s.aspx?id=7684
It spits out a lengthy log that I'm still going through to see what I can gather (to the best of my abilities).
It's really strange though, because the C:\Windows\wmi folder on my PC doesn't only exist, but is populated with two executables: WmiPrvSE.exe and netmon.exe. I checked with another healthy PC, and the folder doesn't exist there either. So I'm even more confused about that folder.
I greatly appreciate the help so far, thank you very much!
Hey TMSharks,
If you haven't already, try running the following see what/if anything they show ?
sfc /scannow
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
Quote