Event: 80 Source: SideBySide Type: Error Log: application

Question

Message:

Activation context generation failed for "C:\Program Files (x86)....exe" Error in manifest or policy file "" on line . A component version by the application conflicts with another component version already active. Conflicting components are:. Coponent 1: C:\Windows\WinSxS\manfests\amd64_microsoft.windows.common-controls.....manifest. Component 2: C:\Windows\WinSxS\manfests\x86_microsoft.windows.common-controls.....manifest.

Seen for many different applications, in the Application Event Log.  Are these as benign as MS would say they are?  Their take on it has to do with an application calling for a 64 bit dll, when in fact they need the 32 bit version of the dll, and that the loader eventually gives the application, so it is a non-issue.

It would be great if a non-issue did not fill my event logs with error type events.

Answer 1

Hi,

The event viewer shows all the system logs and events occurring on the computer. It shows both error events and other normal events occurring on the computer. Below mentioned are the type of event logs which are shown in the event viewer.

Event Logs

Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista

Windows Vista includes two categories of event logs: Windows Logs and Applications and Services logs. You can use either the Event Viewer or the wevtutil command-line tool to manage event logs. When you use wevtutil to manage event logs, messages that you receive from wevtutil might refer to event logs as channels. In most cases, event logs and channels are equivalent. For more information about event logs and channels, see the Event Logs and Channels in Windows Event Log topic in the Windows Event Log Software Development Kit (SDK) online.

Windows Logs

The Windows Logs category includes the logs that were available on previous versions of Windows: the Application, Security, and System logs. It also includes two new logs: the Setup log and the ForwardedEvents log. Windows logs are intended to store events from legacy applications and events that apply to the entire system.

Application log

The Application log contains events logged by applications or programs. For example, a database program might record a file error in the application log. Program developers decide which events to log.

Security log

The Security log contains events such as valid and invalid logon attempts, as well as events related to resource use, such as creating, opening, or deleting files or other objects. Administrators can specify what events are recorded in the security log. For example, if you have enabled logon auditing, attempts to log on to the system are recorded in the security log.

Setup log

The Setup log contains events related to application setup.

System log

The System log contains events logged by Windows system components. For example, the failure of a driver or other system component to load during startup is recorded in the system log. The event types logged by system components are predetermined by Windows.

ForwardedEvents log

The ForwardedEvents log is used to store events collected from remote computers. To collect events from remote computers, you must create an event subscription. To learn about event subscriptions, see Event Subscriptions.

Applications and Services Logs

Applications and Services logs are a new category of event logs. These logs store events from a single application or component rather than events that might have systemwide impact.

This category of logs includes four subtypes: Admin, Operational, Analytic, and Debug logs. Events in Admin logs are of particular interest to IT Professionals using the Event Viewer to troubleshoot problems. Events in the Admin log should provide you with guidance about how to respond to them. Events in the Operational log are also useful for IT Professionals, but they are likely to require more interpretation.

Admin and Debug logs are not as user friendly. Analytic logs store events that trace an issue and, often, a high volume of events are logged. Debug logs are used by developers when debugging applications. Both Analytic and Debug logs are hidden and disabled by default. To make these logs visible, follow the steps in Show or Hide Analytic and Debug Logs. To enable these logs, follow the steps in Enable Analytic and Debug Logs.

Admin

These events are primarily targeted at end users, administrators, and support personnel. The events that are found in the Admin channels indicate a problem and a well-defined solution that an administrator can act on. An example of an admin event is an event that occurs when an application fails to connect to a printer. These events are either well documented or have a message associated with them that gives the reader direct instructions of what must be done to rectify the problem.

Operational

Operational events are used for analyzing and diagnosing a problem or occurrence. They can be used to trigger tools or tasks based on the problem or occurrence. An example of an operational event is an event that occurs when a printer is added or removed from a system.

Analytic

Analytic events are published in high volume. They describe program operation and indicate problems that cannot be handled by user intervention.

Debug

Debug events are used by developers troubleshooting issues with their programs.

Event Logs

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc722404.aspx

Hope this information is helpful. Please let us know if you require further help.

Regards

Rehman – Microsoft Support

Answer 2

Dear Rheman and Jason,

It was thoughtful of you to describe the functions of many of the possible logs that are stored within the EvenViewer, and I appreciate the time it took to put this list together.  If I'm correct, what you are saying, is that because Microsoft has no control over what an application puts in the Event Logs, then it is a non-issue. But on this new Win 7 Ultimate laptop, there were several applications that were generating these messages, to a letter the same, except for the application name.  I don't believe for a second that several applications would choose to use identical verbiage and error levels for an event.  This information must be structured from the OS to have achieved such a degree of similarity.  

As an update, I was taking part in the MS Office 2010 beta program, and after installing the SUA subsystem, oddly I suddenly had two identical Windows directories named Windows'' and windows''; i.e., the differed only in the case of the first letter, as in the regex [Ww]indows.  It also damaged beyond recovery, the MS Office 2010 Beta installation.  I couldn't raise any ones attention at MS Office, so I went through and payed for a support ticket.  The support engineer said that I must have copied the Windows directory by accident while dragging, errantly the Windows folder around.  He agreed that this was an impossible explanation once I reminded him that in a case insensitive file system, those two directories cannot cohabitant in the same root directory.

So, of course, his solution was to try and solve this problem by going reincarnate the damaged OS by utilizing a restore point, prior to the event.  Not surprisingly, this also failed, even after going substantially further back in time than the installation of the SUA component. I'm left now with an engineer that wishes to wipe my machine, and do a fresh install, before the engineers working on the SUA subsystem even have a chance to examine the machine, and what might have caused this problem. I  suspect they would be interested, given that it would have required the changing of the file system setting for case-sensitivity, to have allow for two Windows folders in that differed only in case to  exist in the root of the C drive. While installing the SUA, it asked whether or not to make the file system case sensitive, and of course I choose to do so, because otherwise, it would cause all kinds of confusion while developing an application for Unix, on a case-insensitive file system.

You folks are MS Support Engineers, so I'm not going to unmark your answer, but clearly there is something going on that should get a bit more attention than I've been receiving on this issue from MS. BTW, Norton 360 AV has been running without a complaint throughout this disaster. How does an AV product as sophisticated and well respected as Symantec's product not notice that there just happens to be two (2) [Ww]indows directories in the same root folder?

What ever happened is hard to tell, but at least it saved my Chess Titans statistics, if not the games themselves.  I now have an i7/8Gb/8 core laptop that can at least still play chess.  You always have to put into perspective. All things considered, if I end up having to actually wipe my drive, because no one a Microsoft will step up to the plate and take a look at this serious installation issue, or significant infection, I'll just scraped the Windows OS, and put VM Sphere on the little thing, so I can get some useful work out of the product. You can play some very good chess on any flavor of BSD that you happen to like, and you don't have to deal with support engineer that can't see past their on particular product expertise to notice that something just isn't right. I should have the SUA team QA engineer doing a forensic analysis on the box, not some kid telling me to wipe my drive.  I'm getting to old for this kind of game. But I have this eternal hope that one day, the big software houses will put experienced, people on the phone, to triage the cases by the technical significance, rather than their business impact.

Thanks again for the nicely detailed list of Event Logs.  Who knows, it may come in useful at some future date.

Take care,

--kyle

Retired old fart who is just trying to keep up with his 4 year old son.