FIX: msfeedssync.exe crashes (RSS synchronization Internet explorer)

1. Check if the Feed Task is corrupt by running the following command:
   
   schtasks /query | findstr /i "user_feed"
   
   Results:
   User_Feed_Synchronization-{C73963F9-62BB-4 27/07/2008 10:15:00 Could not start
   
   Ok, that is not good.


2. Stop and restart the Feeds Task:
   
   C:Windowssystem32>msfeedssync disable
   C:Windowssystem32>msfeedssync enable


3. Check Feed Task status again:
   
   schtasks /query | findstr /i "user_feed"
   
   Results:
   User_Feed_Synchronization-{B70B1824-595E-4 27/07/2008 10:14:00 Ready
   User_Feed_Synchronization-{C73963F9-62BB-4 27/07/2008 10:15:00 Could not start
   
   Ok, not good - now I have two tasks - there is definitely an issue with the original task which is unable to start.


4. Disable the Feeds Task:
   
   msfeedssync disable


5. Check to make sure that both Feed Tasks are gone:
   
   schtasks /query | findstr /i "user_feed"
   
   Results:
   No tasks running - that is good


6. Restart the Feeds Task and check to see what we have got:
   
   msfeedssync enable

schtasks /query | findstr /i "user_feed"

Results:
User_Feed_Synchronization-{B70B1824-595E-4 27/07/2008 10:23:00 Ready

Ok, this is good.. the bad Feed Task is gone, but msfeedssync is still crashing - something else is wrong.

7. Tried disabling Antivirus - that didn't fix the problem.


8. Tried running IE in "no add-ons" mode - msfeedssync is still crashing.


9. I fired up Fiddler, which records RSS activity. It turns out msfeedssync was crashing on the same feed every time - I deleted that feed but the subscription was cached somewhere that wasn't updating properly because IE8 continued to check the same feed despite it being deleted (and IE shut down and restarted, and the computer being restarted as well).


10. Ok, the fact that IE continues to check a feed that I have deleted from my Feeds subscriptions indicates that we are most likely dealing with a corrupt file, but which one?
    
    I exported my list of feeds to an OPML file, then deleted the file "FeedsStore.feedsdb-ms" that is located in Users%username%AppDataLocalMicrosoftFeeds. Next, I ran "msfeedssync forcesync".
    
    Results:
    msfeedssync continued to crash, but now it was crashing immediately instead of when it hit a particular feed :o( Ok, I just made things worse.


11. Using Process Monitor, I could see that msfeedssync was crashing immediately after it (apparently successfully) closed this file:

USERS%username%AppDataLocalMicrosoft Feeds Cacheindex.dat

I deleted the entire contents of that folder, including index.dat.

Results:
msfeedssync stopped crashing - YAY!!