Device Census Stopped Working Problem

I have two computers on my home network running Windows 10 Pro version 1803.

Both of these machines are configured to receive Feature Updates utilizing a significant delay:  the Semi-Annual Channel plus an extra 30-day deferral.  As a result, they didn't receive the version 1803 update until 9 August 2018.  Initially everything seemed to be working perfectly, but then the aforementioned devicecensus.exe error appeared in the Reliability Monitor on a daily basis.

Based upon recommendations found earlier in this thread, I initiated the built-in Disk Cleanup utility on one of the machines and focused my attention on Windows Updates as well as Previous Windows Installations.  Unfortunately, this method didn't alleviate the problem.

Finally, when "Patch Tuesday" arrived earlier this week (on 14 August 2018) both computers were updated by KB4343909 to build 17134.228.  One of the computers has only rebooted once since then (due to the update itself), and the other is actually used daily and then shutdown every night.  But in the two days since the update was installed, the devicecensus.exe error has completely disappeared.  Hopefully, this signals the end of it!

08/15/2018 @ ~08:45c

No problem! I probably should have tried the CMD access.

Well, I report this with the utmost caution. But I seem to no longer see the devicecensus failure from this morning's activation.

My yesterday post reflected an after KB4343909(17134.228) install, and subsequently, a retry of the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution rebuild from

"Fleet Command's" direction. Although the original steps for the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution rebuild were performed very carefully, they were

done pre-KB4343909(17134.228) install. Additionally, the fact that I'm only able to detect the devicecensus failure after morning system activation,

once a day, may have prevented my notice of the error absence during yesterday's post.

Whatever, the rationale, as of 2+ hours since my morning activation, I've still not received any devicecensus failure notification.

Thank you members very much for all the conversation concerning devicecensus, that I could use in looking for a fix for this.

And especially, thank you to "Fleet Command" for providing the steps necessary to aid/complete the devicecensus problem fix.

At this moment, I consider the problem fixed. But I will post further if it returns. I'll let others decide if "problem solved" should be checked.

Thanks you again.

"...no additional Reliability History entry appears..."

This means the problem is fixed, even if it means it is fixed temporarily. I myself run "DeviceCensus.exe", used Task Manager to ensure DeviceCensus.exe had ended, and waited 10 second before opening Reliability Monitor (or refreshing it with F5) to check for a crash. I did this whole test five times in a row! The five times repetition had no reason; I just couldn't believe my eyes. 😜

"Remove-Item : A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument '/s'."

The 'rd "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution" /s' command is for Command Prompt only. The equivalent in PowerShell is 'Remove-Item "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution" -Recurse -Force', even though rd "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution" -r -f also works. In addition, "net stop wuauserv" and "net start wuauserv" are also for Command Prompt, even though they work perfectly well in PowerShell. Their native equivalents are " Stop-Service wuauserv" and "Start-Service wuauserv".

I should have mentioned all this earlier. Sorry.

1. I received/applied KB4343909 on 08/14/2018. This took my system from 17134.191 to 17134.228.
2. Looking at the directory entry for devicecensus, it doesn't appear to have a recent date, reflecting the 17134.228 update.
3. I launched RUN devicecensus.exe. The execution raised a powershell-like panel, except the panel was completely blank. In ~10 seconds, the panel collapsed and disappeared. I did this launch directly from the RUN box, and via Cortana's RUN box access.
4. But, based on the assumed devicecensus failure, no additional Reliability History entry appears, subsequent to the entry generated from the earlier morning's initial activation. IOW. This is why I suggested having to wait until the next day to see the event entry. In this system, there will only be 1 devicecensus "Stopped Working" per day.

Stopped Update Service via net stop wuauserv command. Successfully processed.

Below, is the response received from the rd "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution" /s command.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> rd "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution" /s

Remove-Item : A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument '/s'.

At line:1 char:1

• rd "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution" /s

    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (:) [Remove-Item], ParameterBindingException

    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PositionalParameterNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RemoveItemCommand

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Rather than wasting time on the rmdir syntax, I just proceeded to C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution and deleted the folder and contents.

Started Update Service via net start wuauserv command. Successfully processed. Then I checked that the SoftwareDistribution folder had been rebuilt. Successfully processed.

Restarted system, and looked for signs of additional devicecensus failure. No new devicecensus event found. As explained in #04.

I'll check the 08/15 system initialization to see the devicecensus failure status.

Thanks.

Since my devicecensus failure only occurs once daily, I'll have to defer 'til tomorrow to report my result.

But, I'll report that result here then.

You don't have to wait.

DeviceCensus.exe is scheduled to run daily, but you can manually run it any time you want. To do so

1. Press Win+R combination on your keyboard to open Run dialog box (Or open it from the start menu. Or open Cortana instead of Run. Whichever is good for you.)
2. Type "DeviceCensus.exe" (if you are using Cortana instead of Run, wait for it to be found.)
3. Press Enter

Yes, I should have realized that CMDline option.

I must be brief, I have a morning appointment....

I completed the net stop, rmdir, net start sequence yesterday.

Activated the system this morning, but the devicecensus 08/14 failure remains. After allowing 5-10 minutes for failure to occur.

I will say that I received failure response from rmdir. I think it related to the "/s" append. And, also it seemed to squawk about access credentials. Although I ran as admin.

I simply moved to File Explorer, and rid the system of C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution, manually.

I diligently verified the folder removal.

Issued the net start. Processed successfully.

Restarted.... Successful.

Performed another of the endless KB2267602 pending updates. Successful.

I'll Identify my rmdir anomaly, and take another stab at the process, after I return.

Thanks.

P.S. I may have mentioned my weekend admin duties. These steps include, among many housekeeping

items, "checkhealth", "scanhealth" , and "restorehealth" calls for system integrity. I would have thought

that one of these invocations would have flagged/corrected what you were doing with the distribution

rebuild.

"