corrupted performance counters?

Question

Performance counters are EVIL. Don't use them.

if(PerformanceCounterCategory.Exists("ILoveYou")  ) // is true
{
    PerformanceCounterCategory.Delete("ILoveYou"); 
    //throws exception The **configuration registry** key is invalid
}

---

at System.Diagnostics.PerformanceCounterLib.RegisterFiles(String arg0, Boolean unregister)
at System.Diagnostics.PerformanceCounterLib.UnregisterCategory(String categoryName)
at System.Diagnostics.PerformanceCounterCategory.Delete(String categoryName)
at WindowsFormsApplication1.Program.SetupCategory()

All I found is this: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oanapl/archive/2009/04/24/fix-corrupted-performance-counters.aspx (Using LODCTR /R)

and it doesn't help. As I have no idea what file are they talking about. Anyone got any other ideas?

PS I use Windows XP SP3 may this be the problem? I understand it is suppose to support performance counters fully unless I cancel the page file.

to make this clear my problemis that I'm unable to UNINSTALL my counters.

Answer 1

For me,

it was sufficient to re-create all performance counters with

lodctr /R

from a command-line with administrative rights (according to this, but skipping the manual recreation of the base performance counters)

When checking the list of performance counters in the registry in

 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Perflib\009

it turned out that the content of that key startet with lots of whitespace. There was a list of performance counters with high counter indices at the very end of that key. After calling the command above, the key correctly contained the base performance counters as well (and did not contain the leading whitespace any more).