What does HRESULT 0x87C51019 (UTC_E_INVALID_FILTER) mean?

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Description:

Scenario contains an invalid filter that can never be satisfied

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UTC_E_SCENARIODEF_SCHEMAVERSION_MISMATCH	UTC_E_EXE_TERMINATED

UTC_E_INVALID_FILTER

Read this as a lifecycle result: scenario eligibility filter

UTC_E_INVALID_FILTER (0x87C51019) is a Universal Telemetry Client result from the scenario filter parser and evaluator layer for this HRESULT. Treat this HRESULT as a state-machine report, not as a generic telemetry outage for this HRESULT. Here the relevant owner is scenario eligibility filter: the loaded scenario contains a predicate that the evaluator proves can never become true for this HRESULT. This is narrower than a generic failure of Connected User Experiences and Telemetry for this HRESULT.

UTC filters are typed programs, not plain text searches for this HRESULT. Parsing, command validation, name lookup, signature binding and evaluation are distinct phases for this HRESULT. Capturing the normalized expression and inferred operand types is essential for a useful diagnosis for this HRESULT. Record the configuration package or scenario generation together with the Windows build; otherwise a repaired file can be tested against a stale in-memory graph and appear to fail for the same reason for this HRESULT.

Diagnostic record

UTC diagnostic field	Value
Producing layer	scenario filter parser and evaluator
Owning state or object	scenario eligibility filter
Decisive evidence	normalized filter tree, constants, variable domains, comparison types and scenario version
Narrow comparison	replace the contradictory clause with a known satisfiable predicate and replay the same event
Do not confuse with	UTC_E_FILTER_ILLEGAL_EVAL is a runtime type comparison error during evaluation

The AllStat message names the immediate condition as “Scenario contains an invalid filter that can never be satisfied” for this HRESULT. In practice, the useful extension is to ask whether the request was rejected before any side effect, after partial setup, or during cleanup for this HRESULT. Verify the existence and ownership of the expected output—session, directory, process, result object or emitted event—rather than assuming the message describes the final system state for this HRESULT.

Isolate one changing condition

Export the relevant Microsoft-Windows-UniversalTelemetryClient/Operational events and preserve their ActivityId or request correlation alongside this result.
Capture normalized filter tree, constants, variable domains, comparison types and scenario version for this HRESULT. Do this before restarting the service or deleting any working directory for this HRESULT.
Perform this one-variable comparison: replace the contradictory clause with a known satisfiable predicate and replay the same event for this HRESULT.
After the comparison, record the next HRESULT and whether the requested session, action, trigger or output object was actually created for this HRESULT.

The most informative neighbor is UTC_E_FILTER_ILLEGAL_EVAL. The distinction is concrete: UTC_E_FILTER_ILLEGAL_EVAL is a runtime type comparison error during evaluation for this HRESULT. Keeping both symbolic names in logs prevents a broad “DiagTrack error” bucket from hiding whether the failure occurred during parsing, authorization, resource acquisition, execution or teardown for this HRESULT.

Typed-filter note

Save the filter after variable substitution and type inference, not only the authoring XML for this HRESULT. With this result, a visually plausible expression can still fail because the runtime command table, scope or operand types differ from the authoring tool for this HRESULT. Test with one synthetic event whose fields and types are known exactly for this HRESULT.

Operational response

Correct the scenario rule; changing ETW buffers or service permissions cannot make a false predicate true for this HRESULT. Apply that change only to the owning boundary for this HRESULT. A successful repair must make the controlled case cross this boundary while retaining the intended policy, trace providers, destination and security context for this HRESULT.

Restarting Windows, clearing every ETL file or disabling diagnostic policy is not a justified first response to this result. Those actions destroy evidence and can change several independent UTC gates at once for this HRESULT.

the same request now produces its documented success or nonfatal status without a second hidden retry
the operational log shows one coherent request lifetime and no orphaned action, timer, process or trace session
teardown followed by a second run does not reuse stale state or recreate scenario eligibility filter
the nearby condition remains distinguishable: UTC_E_FILTER_ILLEGAL_EVAL is a runtime type comparison error during evaluation

Technical references

Microsoft Open Specifications: Windows error-code registry — reference for scenario filter parser and evaluator while interpreting this result.
Microsoft: Universal Telemetry Client configuration diagnosis — reference for scenario filter parser and evaluator while interpreting it.
Microsoft: Windows Event Log query schema
Microsoft: Querying Windows Event Log

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