Resolving WinMgmt Errors Relating to Performance Counters

The System event log may display one or both of the following events:

In some cases, the addition of extensible performance counters may not work and may leave the performance counter registry entries in an unusable state.

There are files named PerfStringBackup_xxx.ini (where xxx is a decimal number) in the System32 folder. A file of this type is created every time you install an extensible performance counter. These files are snapshots of the performance counter registry entries that are taken before you install a program's counters.

If you believe that your performance counter registry entries are corrupted, follow these steps:

1. List the PerfStringBackup_xxx.ini files sorted by name. You can use this list as a chronological history of the counters that have been added.
2. If there is an abrupt change in file size (for example, from 300 KB to 10 KB), the last file before the abrupt change in size is probably the last good file. It is likely that whatever was installed after that is responsible for the registry corruption. You can restore the registry to the last known good state by running the following command. Note, however, that doing so removes the performance counter references from all of the programs and services that were installed after this snapshot was taken.
   
   To restore the performance counter registry entries to the state described in a PerfStringBackup_xxx.ini file, run the following command
   lodctr /r:filename
   where filename is the name of the PerfStringBackup_xxx.ini file you want to restore.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

To reinstate any performance counters that you added earlier, you must reinstall the programs or performance counters.

NOTE: You may have to reinstall the program that caused the initial corruption, so monitor this process closely.