RESOLVED : Exchange 2010 management tools do not start after the installation of .NET hotfix KB 2449742

UPDATE 4/20/2011: We have now identified the problem and have a solution for customers that were impacted by it

Please see the following KB article for the resolution of this problem:

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2540222

 

The content of the original post (please see above for updates!):

 

We have become aware of a problem that impacts Exchange management tools on servers running Exchange 2010 on Windows Server 2008 SP2.

Note: Windows 2008 R2 SP1 systems do not seem to be impacted. Windows 2008 R2 RTM is impacted.

The symptoms of the problem are:

  • Exchange Management Shell does not start
  • Exchange Management Console does not start
  • There might be a crash in Exchange Mailbox Replication Service (it is not clear yet if this is related)
  • Event Viewer might have trouble opening

The following events could be logged in the Application event log:

  • Event ID: 1023
    Source: .NET Runtime
    Event ID: 1023
    Level: Error
    Description: .NET Runtime version 2.0.50727.5653 - Fatal Execution Engine Error (000007FEF9216D36) (80131506)
  • Event ID: 1000
    Source: Application Error
    Level: Error
    Description: Faulting application PowerShell.exe, version 6.0.6002.18111, time stamp 0x4acfacc6, faulting module mscorwks.dll, version 2.0.50727.5653, time stamp 0x4d54a59c, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x00000000001d9e19, process id 0x%9, application start time 0x%10.

While we are still investigating this problem, the failures seem to start after the .NET security update KB 2449742 (MS11-028) is installed. The only workaround that we have identified up to now is a removal of this security update.

Warning: We do not recommend that you uninstall any security updates, but we are providing this information so that you can implement this procedure at your own discretion. Use this procedure at your own risk. Removing a security update could may make a computer or a network more vulnerable to attack by malicious users or by malicious software such as viruses.

We will update this blog post with more information as it becomes available.