Event ID 10016 The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID

On a Windows 10 machine, you may encounter Event ID 10016 in your eventlog:

Source:        Microsoft-Windows-DistributedCOM
Event ID:      10016
Level:         Error
User:          SYSTEM
Description:
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\SYSTEM SID (S-1-5-18) from address LocalHost (via LRPC) running in the application container not available SID. This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

Well, that reminds me of an old blog post of me, back in 2010. Times have not changed since then: it’s still a hell of a job to fix event id 10016. Especially if your an IT-analphabetic. However, this guide will help you out. Don’t worry. Just make sure you have an Administrator account on your pc and you’re good to go! 🙂

Step 1:

Open your event viewer, and make note of the ID’s. In my example, the id’s are:
CLSID : {D63B10C5-BB46-4990-A94F-E40B9D520160}
APPID: {9CA88EE3-ACB7-47C8-AFC4-AB702511C276}

Also make note of the permission required. In my example, these are:
Local Activation permission is required for user NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM

It’s OK if your ID’s and permissions differ from mine. Just use your own values and don’t switch APPID and CLSID

Step 2:
Open your Registry Editor as an Administrator. To do so, click your start menu, type regedit, right click regedit and click Run as administrator

Step 3
Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{D63B10C5-BB46-4990-A94F-E40B9D520160} (again, if your CLSID is different, choose your own CLSID).

To verify you’re in the right location, take a look at the CLSID, and the values within that key. If right, you also see the APPID as a value.
Write down the Application Name. In my case it’s Runtime Broker. You need this name later on.

Step 4
Right-click the key {D63B10C5-BB46-4990-A94F-E40B9D520160} and click Permissions

Step 5:
In the Permissions window, choose Advanced

Step 6
In the Advance Security Settings window, click Change

Step 7
Type your administrator account. Click Check Names to verify. If you don’t know the name exactly, you can used the Advanced button to search for all accounts and choose the Administrator account by double clicking.
Click OK to confirm

Step 8:
Back in the Advance Security Settings window, click OK to confirm. Notice at the top that the Owner has changed from TrustedInstaller to your administrator account

Step 9:
Back in the “Properties for {…}” window, select the Computername\Administrators and then activate the “Full Permissions” checkbox.
Click OK to confirm.

Step 10:
Well, we’re halfway there! Step 3 to 9 described the configuration for the CLSID {…}. Now, we also need to do the same to the APPID {…}

Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AppID\{9CA88EE3-ACB7-47c8-AFC4-AB702511C276} (again, if your APPID is different, choose your own APPID).
You can verify you’re in the good location by checking the application name. This is the same application name asin Step 3.

Step 11:
Right-click the key {9CA88EE3-ACB7-47c8-AFC4-AB702511C276} and click Permissions

Step 12
In the Permissions window, choose Advanced

Step 13
In the Advance Security Settings window, click Change

Step 14
Type your administrator account. Click Check Names to verify. If you don’t know the name exactly, you can used the Advanced button to search for all accounts and choose the Administrator account by double clicking.
Click OK to confirm

Step 15
Back in the Advance Security Settings window, click OK to confirm. Notice at the top that the Owner has changed from TrustedInstaller to your administrator account

Step 16
Back in the “Properties for {…}” window, select the Computername\Administrators and then activate the “Full Permissions” checkbox.
Click OK to confirm.

Step 17
Almost there! We now have set all permissions to actually change the Local Activiation settings. The following steps will solve your error.

Click Start, type “Component Services“, rightclick Component Services and click “Run as administrator”

Step 18
Navigate to Component Services -> Computers -> My computer -> DCOM Config.
Now, scroll down to the application you have issues with. If you followed my instructions, you wrote the name down at Step 3. In my case, it’s Runtime Broker.
Right click the application name and click Properties

Step 19
Go to tab Security.
Then choose the appropiate action. If you followed my steps, you have written it down at Step 1
In my case, I had issues with Local Activation, so I choose “Launch and Activation Permissions” set to Customize, and then click Edit…
If you had an error related to “do not grant Access permissions”, you would typically choose “Access Permissions” -> Customize, and then click Edit…

Step 20 (last step!!)
In Step 1, you also wrote down the account that caused the error, and the needed action to fix event  id 10016.
In my case, it was “SYSTEM” needing “Local Activation” permissions. This may be the same in your case. But it could also be something like “Network service”  or “Local service”.
Click the name that applies to you, and then click the appropriate permission. As you can see in the screenshot below, I have selected the SYSTEM account and I have set “Local Activation” to Allow

Final thoughts about event id 10016

Well, that took me some time to write down. Did it help you solve your problem? Or do you have additional questions? Please, leave a comment. I’d be happy to reply!