WSUS Service will not start Error 193: 0xc1

WSUS Service will not start Error 193: 0xc1

I had this problem today. 

Config Mgr 2012 SP1 CU2
Windows Server 2012
SQL 2012 SP1

Software updating was not working correctly and there were errors in the ConfigMgr console

Component Status

Site Status

wsyncmgr.log file showed WSUS errors

WSUSCtrl.log file showed errors

Event log showed that the WSUS Service could not start with the following error:

The WSUS Service failed to start due to the following error:
WSUS Service is not a valid Win32 application

WSUS Service could not be started:

Could not start the %{Service} service on local computer.

Error 193: 0xc1

It seems that this was the result of a rogue file on the C: drive of the server (C:\Program)

I don't know how the file was created but this blog post pointed me in the right direction

http://ibus.kayako.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/16/0/cannot-start-the-service-on-local-computer--error-1930xc1-services-cannot-be-started-or-scheduled-backup-missed

Here is an extract:

This issue occurs when one or both of the following conditions is true:

There is a file named 'Program' in your SystemDrive folder.
There is a file named 'Common' in your ProgramFiles folder.

When Windows Service Control Manager (Services.exe) tries to start the Server service, the program verifies the following paths:

SystemDrive\Program
Program Files\Common

If the Program or Common paths exist as files, the Service Control Manager cannot locate the required folders, you will receive the error messages and event ID messages that are listed in the Problem Description section of this article.

I renamed the file

and was able to start the service.

Problem solved