SCCM CMtrace tool corrupt error message The file either does not exist or could not be accessed.Do you want to continue anyway

Few days ago,I had an issue while reading log files using Configmgr CMTrace tool.I tried opening the .log file to read the content but it failed to display the content and instead,it keep prompting me error message ‘The file either does not exist or could not be accessed.Do you want to continue anyway’.

for other users who logged into the same computer,it works good. So I suspect,this could be user profile issue ? but I cannot recreate profile for this issue. It may requires some troubleshooting on this part.

Below is what I get message after opening the log file.

If I click Yes,it displays nothing.

I tried deleting the cmtrace.exe from the existing location and copied CMTrace to different location but still, I get same error.I also tried opening the .log file with notepad and later change it back to cmtrace but still same issue.

To read the logs,I always need to open CMtrace first and then go to file,open to select .log file,but cannot do this always as time consuming.

what made the cmtrace corrupt and how to fix this issue ?

The default application (cmtrace) settings are stored in the registry in HKCU. so in this case,the settings are stored in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Log.File\shell\open\command

Registry settings to open log file using cmtrace as below:

Value data setting: "C:\windows\System32\CMTrace.exe" ""

I looked this setting on working computer and it differs from above .The working machine has below setting:

Value data setting”": "C:\windows\cmtrace.exe" "%1"

If you compare both(working and not working ) ,%1 is missing on the problem computer for the current user.

To fix the problem, just need to add "%1" next to the cmtrace location on the problem computer ("C:\windows\System32\CMTrace.exe""%1").

I could not able to trace ,what causes the setting made wrong in the value data setting but nice to know how to fix it.

In the next post,I will show you,how to set cmtrace as the default log viewer instead of user look for cmtrace to open the logs.