Device Manager crashing: mmc.exe crashes with faulting mgr of devmgr.dll

Question

Hello
I am unable to load device manager (either directly from control panel, or within the Computer Management MMC console. Everytime i attempt to do so, it crashes. An adminstrative event is raised on each occassion with the following:
Faulting application name: mmc.exe, version: 6.3.9600.16384, time stamp: 0x5215ef8f
Faulting module name: devmgr.dll, version: 6.3.9600.16384, time stamp: 0x5215ebc8
Exception code: 0xc00000fd
Fault offset: 0x000000000000e3a2
Faulting process id: 0x1c1c
Faulting application start time: 0x01ceff2006f4b512
Faulting application path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\mmc.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\devmgr.dll
Report Id: 5ead3eb8-6b13-11e3-bec8-14dae9031ab6
Faulting package full name: 
Faulting package-relative application ID: 
There are a few similiar reports i've come across on the web, most centering around the .NET frameworks in use, invalid configs etc., but i've been unable to pinpoint anything specifically wrong. 
Can anyone help? 
Thanks!

Answer 1

I was really trying to avoid a full OS reinstall, but I can't find a solution to either situation.
An Answers poster recently had an
apparent problem with DISM.exe being corrupted. Evidently an sfc /scannow   either didn't notice it or try to fix it.  I wondered about trying sfc /scanfile= on it. If you are about to rebuild it surely could not hurt to perform that experiment
with your two devmgmt.msc files first?
You could check them for length using a modification of the Powershell pipeline we used...
PS C:\windows> dir -Filter "devmgmt.msc" -Recurse -ErrorAction:SilentlyContinue | ft Length, FullName -AutoSize -HideTableHeaders
145640 C:\windows\System32\devmgmt.msc
145640 C:\windows\System32\en-US\devmgmt.msc
145640 C:\windows\SysWOW64\devmgmt.msc
145640 C:\windows\SysWOW64\en-US\devmgmt.msc
145640 C:\windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft-windows-p..cemanager.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.16384_en-us_9242636cfac1b5ec\devmgmt.msc
145640 C:\windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft-windows-pnpdevicemanager_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.16384_none_0494fa7cf377bf21\devmgmt.msc
145640 C:\windows\WinSxS\wow64_microsoft-windows-pnpdevicemanager_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.16384_none_0ee9a4cf27d8811c\devmgmt.msc
145640 C:\windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft-windows-p..cemanager.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.16384_en-us_3623c7e9426444b6\devmgmt.msc
Whoa.  I wasn't expecting that.  All the same size?  Looks like the first pipeline we used which ended with  fl  *  would be more useful.  There are only 8 items so it wouldn't be too much output.
Also, that shows there might be another copy that you could use anyway (e.g. which might not be corrupted as much as the one you were getting by default.)
C.f.
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-windows_update/issue-with-installing-updates-on-windows-81/24b91da6-fdbe-42dd-96c6-3cc91062054b?page=4 
HTH
Robert Aldwinckle