Vista - DCOM System Errors w' WLM 2009

I'm using Windows Live Messenger 2009 Build 14.0.8064.206.

Since installing I've begun having the following system events:
Source: DCOM
Category: None
Type: Error
Event ID: 10010

The server {F81CD990-910B-4BBF-9CB3-6A77F3D697B3} did not register with
DCOM within the required timeout.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Once this starts, the error occurs every 2 minutes until Messenger is shut
down.

I'm using XP SP3, all updates have been applied, Office 2003 Pro w' Live
Workspace installed, and I start my browser using DropMyRights. Outlook is
the default mail client. I HAD used a hosts file but I've reenabled the DNS
Client service and removed the hosts file. I also uninstalled and
reinstalled messenger after removing the hosts file.

Other anomylous symtoms:
* Clicking a Windows Live link results in a page load that can take more
than five minutes. (To try to solve that problem, I've followed suggestions
to add live.com, passport.com, hotmail.com, and msn.com to trusted sites.
I've allowed those same sites unfettered cookie use, and popups are
allowed. (I really don't like doing this.)
* After signing out of and then exiting Messenger, it will SOMETIMES
restart about 45 seconds later (but not in a connected state).

Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this further?

--
Mike H

On Wed, 15 Apr 2009 10:12:51 -0700, Mike H wrote:
Okay, I've identified and repaired one problem - DCOM wouldn't start at
all. This was fixed by re-registering ole32.dll and oleaut32.dll

Even so, the 10010 DCOM event still occurs.
IF - I start IE with ADMINISTRATIVE rights, I don't get the problem. Also,
Windows Live links execute quickly.
IF - I start IE with LIMITED USER rights (with DropMyRights) the DCOM error
occurs, and Windows Live pages take 5 to 10 minutes to load.

Can I change the COM Security settings?

--
Mike H

On Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:20:49 -0700, Mike H wrote:
Okay, discovered some more. If I add and allow TCP Port 135 to the firewall
exclusions I'm good, even as a limited user. This shouldn't be necessary,
though. I'm thinking that I might need to modify the DCOM configuration
settins for {F81CD990-910B-4BBF-9CB3-6A77F3D697B3}, from the defaults to
something else.
--
Mike H

Hi Mike,

To address your initial message, Messenger is automatically called by those sites to give you
contact status information on the web. You can stop that behavior by opening up the Manage
Add-ons panel in IE, selecting 'Add-ons that run without requiring permission', locating all
the 'Windows Live' entries on the list (they're not removed when you uninstall or upgrade
Messenger, so it's not unusual to have more than one) and simply disable them.

You can configure DCOM objects (security and other options) by clicking Start, Run, then
"dcomcnfg" and clicking OK.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger
MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
MessengerGeek Blog: http://www.messengergeek.com
Messenger Resources: http://messenger.jonathankay.com
(c) 2009 Jonathan Kay - If redistributing, you must include this signature or citation
--

"Mike H" <mkREMOVEhuskeyALL@xxxxxx> wrote in message
newsxopxk4zpgov$.1pytqkfzyg8gp.dlg@xxxxxx

On Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:08:21 -0400, Jonathan Kay [MVP] wrote:
Good input, Jonathan. Thank you. Okay, I found the add-on that "sometimes"
results in hangs in IE7. It's entitled "Live" and the executable is an
ActiveX control named "MSGC1~1.dll". If I disable that add-on the hangs
cease, but of course, I'm not sure what functionality I'm sacrificing.
Disabling is probably not a good solution in the long run, but at least it
gives me clues to investigate.

Now I can't say that it's a WLM 2009 problem, actually. It's some kind of
juju going on between the Windows Live websites and Messenger. Sometimes
everything works fine, and other times, not. I'm still working on finding
the exact sequences that work and don't work while running IE7 launched by
DropMyRights. Again, everything works fine if I launch IE7 with
Administrative privileges.

If it turns out that I need to fiddle more with COM+ settings for Messenger
(GUID {F81CD990-910B-4BBF-9CB3-6A77F3D697B3}) can you say where I might be
able to get exact help for that, without running the risk of opening up
DCOM too much? Additionally, since I think this has more to do with the
permissions necessary to access those sites, rather than a problem with WLM
itself, maybe there's a tech support group just for Windows Live? If so, I
couldn't locate it.

--
Mike H

On Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:35:17 -0700, Mike H wrote:
Well, interesting. If I start IE7 BEFORE starting Messenger (and perhaps
Outlook) I seem to be getting complete functionality without generating
DCOM server errors. Again, this is running IE7 by launching it with
DropMyRights; when running as Administrator it makes no difference.

I can live with this, though I'll always wonder why and no doubt, I'll
fiddle with things some more. I need to go back and set those COM+ access
defaults back to their original settings, and maybe even remove the
firewall exception that I added for port 135 and see what happens.

--
Mike H

On Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:47:43 -0700, Mike H wrote:
Problem solved.

Maybe important, maybe not - first, I uninstalled every Live application on
my machine: Outlook Connector, Microsoft Office Live Add-in, Windows Live
Essentials, Windows Live Sign-in Assistant, and the Windows Live Upload
Tool.

I then ran ZapMessenger (Too bad it zapped Windows Messenger).

Next, I downloaded and re-installed Windows Live Essentials (with
Messenger, Write, Outlook Connector, and the Micosoft Office Live Add-in as
checked options).

Since that installs an older version of the Outlook Connector, I then
manually downloaded and installed Version 12 of the connector (rather than
have Outlook detect the older Connector and install it).

At this point, I have an install as clean as I can get it.

Here's what the root problem was all about. IE7 was running with User
permissiosn. WLM was running with Administrator permissions, *sometimes*.
By sometimes, I mean that occasionally, if I started IE7 first, WLM would
inherit the same permissions, that is, User permissions, and other times,
not.

The fix is to insure that WLM's permissions match IE7's. I did this by
launching WLM with DropMyRights, just as I do IE7. Now, it doesn't matter
what order I load those programs in. It's been working every time and I
have full functionality with normal page load times.

Furthermore, I've reset the COM+ Security defaults back to the defaults
they were in prior to playing with them. Here's what I presume those
defaults to be (except for the TCP Port 135 Firewall exception. I left that
there):

Access Permissions

Security Limits
ANONYMOUS LOGON
Local Access : Allow[x] Deny [ ]
Remote Access : Allow[ ] Deny [ ]
Everyone
Local Access : Allow[x] Deny [ ]
Remote Access : Allow[x] Deny [ ]

Default Security
SELF
Local Access : Allow[x] Deny [ ]
Remote Access : Allow[x] Deny [ ]
SYSTEM
Local Access : Allow[x] Deny [ ]
Remote Access : Allow[ ] Deny [ ]

Launch and Activation Permissions

Security Limits
Administrators
Local Launch : Allow [x] Deny [ ]
Remote Launch : Allow [x] Deny [ ]
Local Activation : Allow [x] Deny [ ]
Remote Activation : Allow [x] Deny [ ]
Everyone
Local Launch : Allow [x] Deny [ ]
Remote Launch : Allow [ ] Deny [ ]
Local Activation : Allow [x] Deny [ ]
Remote Activation : Allow [ ] Deny [ ]

Default Security
Administrators
Local Launch : Allow [x] Deny [ ]
Remote Launch : Allow [x] Deny [ ]
Local Activation : Allow [x] Deny [ ]
Remote Activation : Allow [x] Deny [ ]
INTERACTIVE
Local Launch : Allow [x] Deny [ ]
Remote Launch : Allow [ ] Deny [ ]
Local Activation : Allow [x] Deny [ ]
Remote Activation : Allow [ ] Deny [ ]
SYSTEM
Local Launch : Allow [x] Deny [ ]
Remote Launch : Allow [ ] Deny [ ]
Local Activation : Allow [x] Deny [ ]
Remote Activation : Allow [ ] Deny [ ]

On top of that, I have enabled the Windows Live browser add-on again, just
as it was installed.

Finally, I'm able to remove all the Windows Live-related sites from IE's
Trusted Zone. I did, however, leave those sites as allowed exceptions for
cookie handling and pop-ups.

I rebooted, and that's it.

--
Mike H

On Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:08:21 -0400, Jonathan Kay [MVP] wrote:
Solved, Jonathan. See my last post (not this last post!)

--
Mike H

Hi Mike,

Very very impressive. I too have been hit (non Messenger related) by the rights/integrity
level inheriting.
Just sorry I didn't end up providing much assistance with all that.

Messenger under DMR should be okay, although I haven't tried it myself for any length of
time.

Anyway, 10/10 rating from me. I also checked your COM permissions here against mine, they're
identical.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger
MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
MessengerGeek Blog: http://www.messengergeek.com
Messenger Resources: http://messenger.jonathankay.com
(c) 2009 Jonathan Kay - If redistributing, you must include this signature or citation
--

"Mike H" <mkREMOVEhuskeyALL@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:n5838rhd9qz5$.1bs7ppo43sbq1$.dlg@xxxxxx
/snipped all the juicy good stuff/

Hi, Jonathan.

It was a strange problem. I glommed onto the answer when I happened to look
at the Connection status for Messenger. Lo and behold, I caught it saying
"You are connected to the Internet using a direct connection. (User}, while
other times it said {Administrator).

Yeah, some earlier versions of Messenger didn't fare very well with
DropMyRights, if I'm thinking of the right IM program. It couldn't write
back to the program directory, but maybe I'm thinking of ICQ or something
like that. I've been up for 41 hours and I'm getting a little rummy!

I'm speculating about why it worked occasionally before all this. My guess
is that I must have hit a Windows Live site, maybe Hotmail, before starting
Messenger. That would have spawned an instance of msnmsgr with User rights.
Maybe I was lucky sometimes to start an interactive session while the
Hotmail-spawned one was still going. Dunno.

Hey, thanks for verifying on those COM settings. That makes me feel a LOT
better, 'cause I'm not a COM guy by any means (but I used to be good with
OLE). I was having visions of the world barging in and having their way
with me. On a side note, I finally disabled that port 135 exception in the
Firewall. We're still good.

Good night!


On Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:53:06 -0400, Jonathan Kay [MVP] wrote: