I ran into this error when I tried to run Event Viewer in Windows 7.

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Microsoft Management Console
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MMC cannot open the file C:\Windows\system32\eventvwr.msc.

This may be because the file does not exist, is not an MMC console, or was created by a later version of MMC. This may also be because you do not have sufficient access rights to the file.

I ran “sfc /scannow” in case something was wrong with the eventvwr.msc file, but the test came back clean.

I knew the sufficient access rights could not be the problem because I have admin rights.

I googled.

From the first google result, I followed methods 1 & 2, but got the same error. I did not bother with method 3 because it said to check the Event Viewer for the cause. Somebody was copy-and-pasting!

The second result held the answer to my problem. Granted the solution was for Windows Small Business Server, but it worked for Windows 7, too.

1. Click the Start button.
2. In the “Search files and Programs” box, type %appdata%\Microsoft\mmc and press the Enter key. The File Explorer window should open.
3. Delete the files in the folder, or move them to another folder like I did just in case I was reading bad advice.
4. Try to open Event Viewer again.

Event Viewer successfully opened!