By Ran into a lot of DCOM (DistributedCOM) errors on Windows 10 machines after upgrades. Looks like the TrustedInstaller from a previous application and the RunTime Broker did not give System and Local Administrators permission during a Windows 10 upgrade. It just an annoying thing but also slows down a windows 10 Login.
The Error
The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID
{D63B10C5-BB46-4990-A94F-E40B9D520160}
and APPID
{9CA88EE3-ACB7-47C8-AFC4-AB702511C276}
to the user NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE SID (S-1-5-19) from address LocalHost (Using LRPC) running in the application container Unavailable SID (Unavailable). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.
Background
It would appear that an application was installed on these machines at some point and that it did not do a proper install. The W10 upgrade exacerbated the issue due to missing security accounts after a W10 upgrade. The fix is to give local administrators and System rights to the DCOM. To do this you have to modify permissions on two registry keys and then change the DCOM permissions. Pretty easy to do. That said, I am not sure any change is actually required.
FIX
Regedit Take Ownership
You will need to take ownership then set rights against two different keys. The keys are:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AppID\{9CA88EE3-ACB7-47c8-AFC4-AB702511C276}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{D63B10C5-BB46-4990-A94F-E40B9D520160}
- Open Regedit with Administrators privileges and navigate to the keys above (remember you have to do this twice)
- WinKey + X >> Command Prompt (Admin) >> Type in Regedit
- Right click the key >> permissions
- Click advanced
- At the top change the Owner to COMPUTERNAME\Administrators
- Please note if you are domain joined you’ll have to change where you are searching from to your local computer
- Look in the Permission Entries field
- If the local system administrators group is listed ensure it has full control
- if the administrators group is not listed add it and give it full control. (note you can only do this if you are a member of the administrators group and it is now the owner)
- Click okay a lot >> Ensure you apply permissions to all child objects
Change DCOM Permissions
Need to ensure DCOM permissions are setup
- Open DCOMCNFG as an Administrator
- WinKey + X >> Command Prompt (Admin) >> Type in DCOMCNFG
- Navigate to Component Services >> Computers >> My Computer >> DCOM Config
- Find the RunTimeBroker >> Right Click >> Properties >> Security Tab
- Launch and Activation Permissions >> Edit >> Add System and give it full control
- I also added the Administrators group just for testing
While changing permissions I was prompted several times to remove bad account references. I did this as the computer knows which accounts have been removed.
Summary
At this point you should have sorted the DCOM errors. Give your computer a reboot and away you can go. Issue seems to reappear on install of new builds of Windows 10.
Reminder: I am not sure this fix is required.
Quarter Five - Thoughts and Solutions 
Can I get a little more simplier guide since with this I don’t have any clue what to do. Thx.
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Hi Yaddablah, unfortunately there is no simpler method. If this error is causing you issues than you can use the steps here to fix the issue. However, if you are not experiencing any issues it may not be worth your time to fix the errors.
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to me what has happened on the new updates is M$ has added themselves as ‘User’ thus making DCOM part of their deal…you can not even ‘Disable’ it in Services anymore….tinkering with Permissions causes more issues….that is what we get for turning out machines into ‘smart phone’ deals….it’s all about snooping and the advertising dollar that they all worship.
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1. Unable to save permission on {9CA88EE3-ACB7-47c8-AFC4-AB702511C276}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AppID\{9CA88EE3-ACB7-47c8-AFC4-AB702511C276}
2. Option disable to add permission on “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{D63B10C5-BB46-4990-A94F-E40B9D520160}”
My system hang off & on so I try to change but system doesn’t allow to change permission.
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Unable to save the permission? did you do the registry step first? The system Hang is an indicator of a different issue on your device.
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I don’t know why people keep quoting and re-quoting this “solution”. It has been around for quite a while. And it is well-known that none of these manipulations have any effect on DistributedCOM error 10016. Neither for CLSID {D63B10C5-BB46-4990-A94F-E40B9D520160} – APPID {9CA88EE3-ACB7-47C8-AFC4-AB702511C276} combination, nor for any other instances of 10016.
The problem is still there and there’s no improvement whatsoever.
Additionally is it probably worth noting that “Launch and Activation Permissions” does not have such permission as “Full Control”. It is not immediately clear what the author means as “giving it full control”. Enable all checkboxes? Something else?
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FROM: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4022522/dcom-event-id-10016-is-logged-in-windows-10-and-windows-server-2016
Cause
These 10016 events are recorded when Microsoft components tries to access DCOM components without the required permissions. In this case, this is expected and by design.
A coding pattern has been implemented where the code first tries to access the DCOM components with one set of parameters. If the first attempt is unsuccessful, it tries again with another set of parameters. The reason why it does not skip the first attempt is because there are scenarios where it can succeed. In those scenarios, that is preferable.
CONCLUSION: Any issues you have are unlikely to be related to this error… look for something else to worry about!
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Hello!
I tried anything you said in the post but it keeps crashing with the same log files. What can i do now? I got the RuntimeBroker 2x in my Component Services. Is this wrong? I also tried to add ALL permissions to EVERY User for the RegKeys. I realy dont know what to do now…
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Thanks, works also for Windows Server 2016
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Don’t even bother changing anything, it’s not a big deal getting these – most likely if you screw around with changing these six ways to Sunday times three – your going to screw up your computer as many have denoted in this forum. I been getting these since the dawn of Windows at home and work – they don’t slow down your computer so leave it alone.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4022522/dcom-event-id-10016-is-logged-in-windows-10-windows-server?ranMID=43674&ranEAID=je6NUbpObpQ&ranSiteID=je6NUbpObpQ-Hzq8q7pm3fprikuHGmvIOw&epi=je6NUbpObpQ-Hzq8q7pm3fprikuHGmvIOw&irgwc=1&OCID=AID681541_aff_7795_1243925&tduid=(ir__fe6an2nxngdxzw02zldzeznpsm2xhhwe3l20d0rc00)(7795)(1243925)(je6NUbpObpQ-Hzq8q7pm3fprikuHGmvIOw)()&irclickid=_fe6an2nxngdxzw02zldzeznpsm2xhhwe3l20d0rc00
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Hey Shaun, thanks for the useful information here. I’m giving your fix a shot. One thing: when I get to the first registry I don’t see a key called Permissions. I see:
(Default)
AccessPermission
AppID Flags
AuthenticationLevel
LaunchPermission
RunAs
Thanks in advance.
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PS: I’m getting this error because I get a crash when Adobe Reader creates a whole lot of thumbnails.
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Really helpful. Thanks!!!
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Thanks, this is still applicable today (when many references to solutions in Microsoft support pages are broken).
I have a few Apple tools installed as part of the Xamarin or Android build tools, are these likely to have been the cause?
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I have seen this error now for years caused by a great number of software rights. It does ZERO harm but it is curious.
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according to MicroShaft these Event ID 10016 errors are due to the settings for DCOM being now owned by M$ as they from build 1703 going forward have added themselves as a ‘User’ on most of the Windows 10 platforms. those errors are now (according to MicroShaft) benign and are intended to be generated as a security precaution and according to their statement on the subject, to be ignored. the DCOM service prior to 1703 could be disabled but that can no longer be done. there no longer is any way to ‘take ownership’ as in the past to rid these errors that are being generated. to me it is all about M$ doing the ‘Big Brother’ thing.
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did not mean to post twice…sorry bout that.
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Well, after numerous tries and fixes, even a complete reloading of Windows, I am right back where I started. After creating a lot of thumbnails, Windows Explorer will hang up and crash, then all thumbnails will be deleted. It is recorded as a 10016 error. I’ve tried turning off the occasional Windows maintenance that deletes thumbnails, tried the advice of this article, increased the thumbnail cache size. All to no avail. At the moment this problem appears to be unsolvable. Its the only really big problem I’ve had so far with Windows 10.
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I have 2 RuntimeBroker and neither will allow a Security change. I am admin
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I have this same issue (two runtimebrokers, unable to edit) — hoping someone has an answer
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I’m experiencing the same. 2 Runtime Broker and neither allow add or remove of security roles.
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Going on about 1-year and I have never had my Windows 10 stay up for more than 10 days! Maybe at most 7, probably 5.
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Let’s leave windows 10 , Linux is better deal.
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starcraft2 is crashing probably because of this, users trying to fix this error here:
https://us.battle.net/forums/en/sc2/topic/19497169729
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could not change, modify, grant, or do anything because my W10 says unrecognizable data entry and can not be accessed.
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I had this problem with chrome 79.0.3945.79 (64 bit) on win10. Nothing worked. The browser didn’t start, just Eww-snap error and in the system log, the error above was seen. Then I tried to run chrome in Windows8 compatibility Mode. Now I have no problems 🙂
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https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4022522/dcom-event-id-10016-is-logged-in-windows
this is by design 🙂 either ignore it or add a filter in the event viewer to not show this €rror.
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The error causes pcs to crash henice it isn’t benign nor can it be ignored. It is a nuisance.I had fixed it once had to reinstall windows and now I have to do it all over again.
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Even after all this I still have no access to the DCOM configuration security Activation and Launch is still greyed out. I can’t remove erroneous account anymore than I can add a new permission. Can’t this be accomplished within the registry directly?
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you apparently can use winearo tweaker/It can override the permission issue and give you access to DCOM security.
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please tell us how we can use winearo tweaker to override the permission issue and give you access to DCOM security… i looked and could not find the option
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Thanks a lot for this!
This resolved JNi/RMI failure, when JVM was getting inexplicable ‘access denied’ when running as NT service under Win2016 Server
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When I click on edit of Launch and Activation Permissions of the RuntimeBroker I get ‘One or more of the permission entries attached to Registry Value has an unrecognized type and can not be displayed’
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https://port135.com/2018/11/25/dcom-config-security-tab-greyed-out-solved/
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Thank you for this, been constantly trying to battle the annoying errors in EventLog (although they may not effect performance) and so far this has been the most straight-forward guide on fixing them. The only thing I had to do differently was use “RunAsTI” (Run as TrustedInstaller, https://github.com/jschicht/RunAsTI) to get `regedit` to allow me setting the permissions.
Just figured I’d let anyone else who ended up here know, if they’re unable to change permissions to try that first.
Thanks 👍
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How about MS just doing a better job at putting and requiring aplication developers to follow an accurate and useful modicum of information in these event viewer error entries. The old some application reported and error code and there is not enough information available is bullshit.
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