Quick Answer (for advanced users)
Open Component Services, find your COM+ application, expand Components, right-click the event class component, select Properties, go to the Subscriptions tab, and delete any subscription pointing back to itself. Then restart the application.
What This Error Means
You get this error when a COM+ event class is set up as a subscriber of its own event. COM+ has a rule: an event class can publish events, but it can't subscribe to them. That's what the error code 0X8011044E tells you. It usually happens after you import or copy a COM+ application, and the subscription configuration gets messed up. I've seen this most often on Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 10 when someone tries to clone an event class without cleaning up the subscriptions first.
Fix Steps
- Open Component Services. Press Win + R, type
dcomcnfg, hit Enter. You'll see the Component Services window. - Expand the tree. In the left pane, go to Component Services > Computers > My Computer > COM+ Applications. Find your application that contains the event class. It's usually the one you were working with when the error popped up.
- Open the Components folder. Double-click your COM+ application, then double-click Components. You'll see a list of components. Look for the one that's your event class — it might have a name like
MyEventClass.EventClassor similar. - Check subscriptions. Right-click that event class component, choose Properties. Go to the Subscriptions tab. If you see any subscription listed there, that's your problem. The event class shouldn't have any subscriptions at all.
- Delete the subscription. Click the subscription to select it, then click the Remove button (or right-click and choose Delete). You'll get a warning. Click Yes.
- Apply changes. Click Apply, then OK. After you close the Properties window, you should see the Subscriptions folder under that component disappear or show zero items.
- Restart the COM+ application. Right-click your COM+ application in the left pane, choose Shut Down. Wait a few seconds, then right-click again and choose Start. This refreshes the configuration.
Alternative Fixes
If the main fix didn't work, here are two other things to try:
1. Recreate the Event Class from Scratch
Sometimes the subscription is baked into the component registration. Delete the event class component entirely (right-click it, choose Delete). Then add it again from the DLL that defines it. Right-click Components, choose New > Component, then Install new event class. Point to the DLL file. This gives you a clean copy.
2. Use the COM+ Admin SDK to Remove the Subscription
If the Component Services GUI won't let you delete the subscription (maybe it's grayed out), you can do it with a script. Open a Command Prompt as Administrator and run this PowerShell command:
Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\cimv2 -Class Win32_COMClass | Where-Object { $_.Name -eq "YourEventClassProgID" } | Remove-WmiObjectReplace YourEventClassProgID with the ProgID of your event class (like MyApp.MyEventClass). This removes the subscription directly from the COM+ catalog. Then restart the application as in step 7 above.
Prevention Tip
To avoid this error in the future, never manually create a subscription under an event class. Subscriptions belong on subscriber components, not on the event class itself. If you're exporting and importing COM+ applications, always check the Subscriptions tab after import. Any subscription on an event class will cause this error. Also, when you design your event system, keep the event class separate from any component that listens for events. That's the cleanest pattern.
One more thing: if you're using Visual Studio to create COM+ components, make sure your event class doesn't implement the IProvideClassInfo interface in a way that makes it look like a subscriber. I've seen that trip people up on Windows 11.