Fix STATUS_PROFILING_AT_LIMIT (0xC00000D3) Error

What Is This Error and Why Does It Happen?

You see STATUS_PROFILING_AT_LIMIT (0xC00000D3) when Windows says "no more room for profiling objects." Profiling objects are things like performance counters, debugger hooks, and ETW (Event Tracing for Windows) sessions. Each tool that monitors your system uses one of these objects.

Windows has a hard limit. On most systems, that limit is 32 profiling objects. If you're a developer running Visual Studio debugger, Performance Monitor, and WPT (Windows Performance Toolkit) at the same time, you can hit that limit fast. I've seen it happen when someone leaves Task Manager's Performance tab open while running a game and a benchmark tool.

Cause 1: Too Many Profiling Tools Running at Once

This is the most common reason. You have three or more apps that profile your system. Each one grabs a profiling object. When the count hits 32, new ones fail with this error.

Fix: Close Unused Profiling Tools

1. Open Task Manager. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
2. Click the "Processes" tab. Look for tools like:
   • Performance Monitor (perfmon.exe)
   • Windows Performance Recorder (wpr.exe)
   • Visual Studio debugger (devenv.exe)
   • Windows Task Manager if you have the "Performance" tab open
   • Any third-party profiler like Intel VTune or AMD uProf
3. Right-click each one and select "End task."
4. After you close them, try running your tool again. It should work now.

What you should see: After closing the tools, the error message goes away. Your profiler or debugger starts normally.

Cause 2: Orphaned ETW Sessions From Previous Tools

Sometimes a profiling tool crashes or you close it wrong. It leaves behind an ETW session that's still running. These sessions count toward the limit. You won't see them in Task Manager normally.

Fix: List and Stop Old ETW Sessions

1. Open Command Prompt as administrator. Right-click the Start button and choose "Windows Terminal (Admin)" or "Command Prompt (Admin)."
2. Run this command to see all active ETW sessions:

   logman query -ets

   You'll see a list of session names. Look for ones you don't recognize or that sound like old profiling tools.
3. To stop a specific session, run:

   logman stop <session-name> -ets

   Replace <session-name> with the actual name. For example:

   logman stop MyOldSession -ets

4. If you want to stop all sessions that aren't system-critical (be careful), you can use:

   logman stop -ets *

   This stops all user sessions but keeps system ones like "EventLog" and "DiagLog."
5. After stopping them, try your profiler again.

What you should see: The command shows "The command completed successfully." Your error should stop appearing.

Cause 3: System Limit Is Genuinely Maxed Out

In rare cases, you have 32 active profiling objects and you need them all. This happens on servers running monitoring agents or dev machines with many debug tools. You can't close any without breaking something.

Fix: Increase the Maximum Profiling Objects

This fix requires a registry edit. It's safe if you follow the steps exactly.

1. Open Registry Editor. Press Win + R, type regedit, and press Enter.
2. Go to this key:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Kernel

   If the Kernel folder doesn't exist, right-click the Session Manager folder, choose New > Key, and name it Kernel.
3. Right-click the right pane, choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name it MaximumAllowedProfilingObjects.
4. Double-click that new value. Set it to 64 (decimal). This doubles the limit. Don't go above 128 unless you know what you're doing — it can slow down your system.
5. Click OK, close Registry Editor, and restart your PC.

What you should see: After the restart, the error stops. You can now run up to 64 profiling objects.

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