Hello Brian,
First of all, regarding the licensing issue:
My Windows version is OEM and it is properly licensed.
It looks like the MS Office 2010 was not properly licensed, therefore I stopped using it
and instead I am using a licensed MS Office 2007 on another machine.
I will definitely clarify this issue with the vendor.
Just one word about licensing in general, which maybe you will find surprising:
Unfortunately, most of the times it is practically impossible to acquire properly licensed MS products,
because of reasons like:
1. You can only buy an OS with a new computer, and only the very last version.
So, today for example, no one will sell you Windows 7 !
2. Even for other software packages, ex. MS Office, if you want a previous version instead of the last one,
no one will sell you such a thing, including Microsoft itself.
3. There are countries which do not allow you to buy software products online, from legal web sites such as Amazon,
they simply do not allow you to "import" software this way.
In other countries, like in Europe for example, there are shops where you can buy anything you like,
any version you like, and so on.
So, this might be the reason that sometimes vendors find their own ways to overcome these issues,
without their customers even being aware of the problem.
But, regardless of the licensing issue, at this moment there are several technical issues accumulating,
from different directions, but which finally seem "to converge".
To make the long story short:
1. As a preparatory step for any action to be taken, I prepared two kinds of backups:
a. a full image backup, on one external hard disk
b. a files (documents) backup, on another external hard disk
This I did still BEFORE the last update KB4093118 did arrive.
By the way, all my updates seem to arrive from the same site, https://fe2.update.microsoft.com/v6/ClientWebService/client.asmx,
on all my machines.
This specific update appears to have been changed by Microsoft on Apr 12, two days after its first publication,
and this made it appear on those machines where it did not appear previously.
2. When the update did finally arrive, it apparently installed itself successfully (as by the Update History),
but then it kept appearing again and again during Check for Updates.
And, indeed, it does NOT appear in the "Installed Updates" list, and also not in the registry
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Component Based Servicing\ApplicabilityEvaluationCache
The WindowsUpdate.log only shows that a reboot was scheduled, but it in fact was never triggered to happen.
And even if I try to install manually, at the end it DOES NOT ask me to allow reboot to complete installation.
Instead, every day a new "successful" installation of the SAME update is added to the Update History only,
which shows that the Update History is only a history of "attempted updates", and "successful" is only a partial state.
3. Starting to research why is this happenning, I discovered in the EventViewer System log lots and lots of "pairs"
like the following:
Warning EventID=136
The default transaction resource manager on volume C: encountered an error while starting and its metadata was reset.
The data contains the error code.
1C00040002003000020000008800048000000000060019C000000000000000000000000000000000060019C0
+
Error EventID=137
The default transaction resource manager on volume C: encountered a non-retryable error and could not start.
The data contains the error code.
1C0004000200300002000000890004C000000000010100C000000000000000000000000000000000010100C0
And these keep repeating every minute or so.
Previously such errors were not shown in the EventViewer !
Researching this issue further, I found that this is a known problem, relating to the "default transaction resource manager"
being left in an inconsistent state, following some kind of failure.
There is a standard method that is suggested in lots and lots of places for solving this problem,
namely to perform the following:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
fsutil resource setautoreset true %systemdrive%\
attrib -r -s -h %SystemRoot%\System32\Config\TxR\*
del %SystemRoot%\System32\Config\TxR\*
attrib -r -s -h %SystemRoot%\System32\SMI\Store\Machine\*
del %SystemRoot%\System32\SMI\Store\Machine\*.tm*
del %SystemRoot%\System32\SMI\Store\Machine\*.blf
del %SystemRoot%\System32\SMI\Store\Machine\*.regtrans-ms
-------------------------------------------------------------------
I performed this, both in normal mode and in Safe Startup mode and all the steps were successful,
but the alerts in the EventViewer still continue to arrive.
I studied more, since the FSUTIL was something that I did not know about,
so further I tried the following (as Administrator):
C:\Windows\system32>fsutil resource info c:\
Error: Transaction support within the specified resource manager is not started or was shut down due to an error.
C:\Windows\system32>fsutil resource start c:\
Error: Access in denied
4. Further researching this issue I found some web sites that directly relate this problem to having performed a backup
and/or having connected an external hard drive, especially in Windows7 64 bit, more frequently than in 32 bit.
Then I suddenly remembered that after having performed my backups, I encountered the problem that I could not eject
the 2nd external hard drive as usual, because it was all the time reported as being in use.
Looks like the culprit for this issue is a service named "Distributed Link Tracking Client".
Anyway, for being on the safe side, I performed a restart and afterwards it was possible to eject the external hard drive as usual.
But, in spite of this, it looks like the "default transaction manager" remained corrupted, but silently, still without any messages
in the EventViewer, and, at the moment when the new update KB4093118 did arrive, Windows Update could not install it
and then the alerts started to appear and do not stop since then.
I tried to perform a System Restore to before the point when I performed the backup to the external drive,
and the Restore failed with the following error:
0x80071a91 - ERROR_RM_NOT_ACTIVE
And this is the same error that is reported on many web sites for the problem of a Windows Update keeping to appear repeatedly,
and this completely aligns with the two alerts on "default transaction resource manager" that keep appearing all the time
in the EventViewer log.
After reading lots and lots and lots of web pages about this problem, I found the following one:
Corrupt transaction resource manager after Windows 10 install - Super
User
Though it refers to a Windows10 installation, it seems to "cut the issue" by stating that none of the other methods did help,
except reformatting the OS partition.
I don't know whether this is indeed so, but anyway at this moment things look like that
As far as I understand, the "transaction resource manager" is a file (or hive) + some process(es) that manage it,
so it is not clear for me why indeed should we go so far as to need a partition reformatting for solving such an issue ?!?
Why cannot that "resource manager" file/hive be recreated from scratch, using a set of commands for "resetting" it,
as in fact is suggested everywhere, but which DO NOT HELP ?
Considering the point in time when these alerts started to appear, my last hope is to maybe be able to perform an Image restore
of the OS partition only.
As I said, I performed 2 backups on two different external drives, and only the second one encountered the eject problem,
so, hopefully, the Image backup on the first external drive was still "not reflecting" this problem,
if it was indeed caused by the external drive at all ... which I still seriously doubt, because it is against any common sense !
The same external drive was always used successfully also with Windows XP, so the problem is indeed with Windows7 only.
Maybe my thinking is "too simplistic", but I still can only think along the lines of:
1. If some file is corrupted, then there should exist a method of recreating it.
(at most, with some accepted loss of data).
2. If a critical OS file is lost, then MS should ensure the possibility to replace it with a clean file.
3. If a process is not working properly, then a system restart should repair it by causing it to start fresh.
Now it looks to me that there is no chance but "demolishing a house because a window is broken" ...
Every day I learn about a whole bunch of mechanisms related to Windows Internals,
and I can only be sincere and say that, though nice in concept, some of these processes are implemented
in a far, far too complicated manner.
Instead of all this complicated "Transaction Resource Manager" that might remain "corrupted forever",
for performing a Windows Update or any other such activity that should be "transactionally consistent",
what would have been more simple than:
1. keep a copy of all the original files that the update is going to replace
2. perform the replace one-by-one
3. on any failure anywhere during these steps, return to the original files (which are already ensured to be correct and working)
Or, even better, always put any new files in a new place, and just modify a pointer to point to the new place
(or back to the old one).
Ok ... I promissed a short post, and finally wrote an entire philosophy book ....
Unfortunately, I strongly believe that the thousands of common users (myself included, when it comes to Windows issues)
should NEVER be faced with a situation when they should sit and study for nights after nights all these internals intricacies,
just for the simple purpose of having a machine up and running.
Browsing the web, I see many people who, in total discouragement, simply recommend migrating to other OS-es,
like for example Linux, which does not have all these problems ... and it is also free !
This should light up a semaphore to Microsoft ... but, unfortunately, they seem to be very non-responsive in what concerns
the users daily experience using their products ... and correcting their own bugs which cause users systems to crash out of nowhere ...
Believe me or not, I think that I am already sitting now about 72 hours continuously near my machine ...
and still without light at the end of the tunel ...
I feel totally discouraged ... and for sure I don't have enough time left behind in my life for becoming a Windows specialist,
even if I would invest myself completely into it ...
Sorry for having kidnapped so much of your time with all these issues, I always enjoy learning from people
who know a whole lot about issues that are new for me :)
But I also should solve my effective practical problem, before I will decide to finally give up ...
Thanks a lot for all your help & Best Regards,
Iudith
First of all, regarding the licensing issue:
My Windows version is OEM and it is properly licensed.
It looks like the MS Office 2010 was not properly licensed, therefore I stopped using it
and instead I am using a licensed MS Office 2007 on another machine.
I will definitely clarify this issue with the vendor.
Just one word about licensing in general, which maybe you will find surprising:
Unfortunately, most of the times it is practically impossible to acquire properly licensed MS products,
because of reasons like:
1. You can only buy an OS with a new computer, and only the very last version.
So, today for example, no one will sell you Windows 7 !
2. Even for other software packages, ex. MS Office, if you want a previous version instead of the last one,
no one will sell you such a thing, including Microsoft itself.
3. There are countries which do not allow you to buy software products online, from legal web sites such as Amazon,
they simply do not allow you to "import" software this way.
In other countries, like in Europe for example, there are shops where you can buy anything you like,
any version you like, and so on.
So, this might be the reason that sometimes vendors find their own ways to overcome these issues,
without their customers even being aware of the problem.
But, regardless of the licensing issue, at this moment there are several technical issues accumulating,
from different directions, but which finally seem "to converge".
To make the long story short:
1. As a preparatory step for any action to be taken, I prepared two kinds of backups:
a. a full image backup, on one external hard disk
b. a files (documents) backup, on another external hard disk
This I did still BEFORE the last update KB4093118 did arrive.
By the way, all my updates seem to arrive from the same site, https://fe2.update.microsoft.com/v6/ClientWebService/client.asmx,
on all my machines.
This specific update appears to have been changed by Microsoft on Apr 12, two days after its first publication,
and this made it appear on those machines where it did not appear previously.
2. When the update did finally arrive, it apparently installed itself successfully (as by the Update History),
but then it kept appearing again and again during Check for Updates.
And, indeed, it does NOT appear in the "Installed Updates" list, and also not in the registry
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Component Based Servicing\ApplicabilityEvaluationCache
The WindowsUpdate.log only shows that a reboot was scheduled, but it in fact was never triggered to happen.
And even if I try to install manually, at the end it DOES NOT ask me to allow reboot to complete installation.
Instead, every day a new "successful" installation of the SAME update is added to the Update History only,
which shows that the Update History is only a history of "attempted updates", and "successful" is only a partial state.
3. Starting to research why is this happenning, I discovered in the EventViewer System log lots and lots of "pairs"
like the following:
Warning EventID=136
The default transaction resource manager on volume C: encountered an error while starting and its metadata was reset.
The data contains the error code.
1C00040002003000020000008800048000000000060019C000000000000000000000000000000000060019C0
+
Error EventID=137
The default transaction resource manager on volume C: encountered a non-retryable error and could not start.
The data contains the error code.
1C0004000200300002000000890004C000000000010100C000000000000000000000000000000000010100C0
And these keep repeating every minute or so.
Previously such errors were not shown in the EventViewer !
Researching this issue further, I found that this is a known problem, relating to the "default transaction resource manager"
being left in an inconsistent state, following some kind of failure.
There is a standard method that is suggested in lots and lots of places for solving this problem,
namely to perform the following:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
fsutil resource setautoreset true %systemdrive%\
attrib -r -s -h %SystemRoot%\System32\Config\TxR\*
del %SystemRoot%\System32\Config\TxR\*
attrib -r -s -h %SystemRoot%\System32\SMI\Store\Machine\*
del %SystemRoot%\System32\SMI\Store\Machine\*.tm*
del %SystemRoot%\System32\SMI\Store\Machine\*.blf
del %SystemRoot%\System32\SMI\Store\Machine\*.regtrans-ms
-------------------------------------------------------------------
I performed this, both in normal mode and in Safe Startup mode and all the steps were successful,
but the alerts in the EventViewer still continue to arrive.
I studied more, since the FSUTIL was something that I did not know about,
so further I tried the following (as Administrator):
C:\Windows\system32>fsutil resource info c:\
Error: Transaction support within the specified resource manager is not started or was shut down due to an error.
C:\Windows\system32>fsutil resource start c:\
Error: Access in denied
4. Further researching this issue I found some web sites that directly relate this problem to having performed a backup
and/or having connected an external hard drive, especially in Windows7 64 bit, more frequently than in 32 bit.
Then I suddenly remembered that after having performed my backups, I encountered the problem that I could not eject
the 2nd external hard drive as usual, because it was all the time reported as being in use.
Looks like the culprit for this issue is a service named "Distributed Link Tracking Client".
Anyway, for being on the safe side, I performed a restart and afterwards it was possible to eject the external hard drive as usual.
But, in spite of this, it looks like the "default transaction manager" remained corrupted, but silently, still without any messages
in the EventViewer, and, at the moment when the new update KB4093118 did arrive, Windows Update could not install it
and then the alerts started to appear and do not stop since then.
I tried to perform a System Restore to before the point when I performed the backup to the external drive,
and the Restore failed with the following error:
0x80071a91 - ERROR_RM_NOT_ACTIVE
And this is the same error that is reported on many web sites for the problem of a Windows Update keeping to appear repeatedly,
and this completely aligns with the two alerts on "default transaction resource manager" that keep appearing all the time
in the EventViewer log.
After reading lots and lots and lots of web pages about this problem, I found the following one:
Corrupt transaction resource manager after Windows 10 install - Super
User
Though it refers to a Windows10 installation, it seems to "cut the issue" by stating that none of the other methods did help,
except reformatting the OS partition.
I don't know whether this is indeed so, but anyway at this moment things look like that
As far as I understand, the "transaction resource manager" is a file (or hive) + some process(es) that manage it,
so it is not clear for me why indeed should we go so far as to need a partition reformatting for solving such an issue ?!?
Why cannot that "resource manager" file/hive be recreated from scratch, using a set of commands for "resetting" it,
as in fact is suggested everywhere, but which DO NOT HELP ?
Considering the point in time when these alerts started to appear, my last hope is to maybe be able to perform an Image restore
of the OS partition only.
As I said, I performed 2 backups on two different external drives, and only the second one encountered the eject problem,
so, hopefully, the Image backup on the first external drive was still "not reflecting" this problem,
if it was indeed caused by the external drive at all ... which I still seriously doubt, because it is against any common sense !
The same external drive was always used successfully also with Windows XP, so the problem is indeed with Windows7 only.
Maybe my thinking is "too simplistic", but I still can only think along the lines of:
1. If some file is corrupted, then there should exist a method of recreating it.
(at most, with some accepted loss of data).
2. If a critical OS file is lost, then MS should ensure the possibility to replace it with a clean file.
3. If a process is not working properly, then a system restart should repair it by causing it to start fresh.
Now it looks to me that there is no chance but "demolishing a house because a window is broken" ...
Every day I learn about a whole bunch of mechanisms related to Windows Internals,
and I can only be sincere and say that, though nice in concept, some of these processes are implemented
in a far, far too complicated manner.
Instead of all this complicated "Transaction Resource Manager" that might remain "corrupted forever",
for performing a Windows Update or any other such activity that should be "transactionally consistent",
what would have been more simple than:
1. keep a copy of all the original files that the update is going to replace
2. perform the replace one-by-one
3. on any failure anywhere during these steps, return to the original files (which are already ensured to be correct and working)
Or, even better, always put any new files in a new place, and just modify a pointer to point to the new place
(or back to the old one).
Ok ... I promissed a short post, and finally wrote an entire philosophy book ....
Unfortunately, I strongly believe that the thousands of common users (myself included, when it comes to Windows issues)
should NEVER be faced with a situation when they should sit and study for nights after nights all these internals intricacies,
just for the simple purpose of having a machine up and running.
Browsing the web, I see many people who, in total discouragement, simply recommend migrating to other OS-es,
like for example Linux, which does not have all these problems ... and it is also free !
This should light up a semaphore to Microsoft ... but, unfortunately, they seem to be very non-responsive in what concerns
the users daily experience using their products ... and correcting their own bugs which cause users systems to crash out of nowhere ...
Believe me or not, I think that I am already sitting now about 72 hours continuously near my machine ...
and still without light at the end of the tunel ...
I feel totally discouraged ... and for sure I don't have enough time left behind in my life for becoming a Windows specialist,
even if I would invest myself completely into it ...
Sorry for having kidnapped so much of your time with all these issues, I always enjoy learning from people
who know a whole lot about issues that are new for me :)
But I also should solve my effective practical problem, before I will decide to finally give up ...
Thanks a lot for all your help & Best Regards,
Iudith
