Windows 10 Problems, Issues with solutions and fixes

If you have installed the latest version of Windows 10, you may be facing some Windows 10 problems and issues. Fortunately, the list of known issues is not long and is limited to some countries for some reason. The best thing about bugs in Windows 10 or known issues is that Microsoft works on them as soon as they are notified. Despite that, here are the some bugs and issues.

Windows 10 Problems and Issues

1] Windows installation may terminate with SOMETHING HAPPENED message

In some languages, you may see the message “Something happened” with the only option being the CLOSE button. When you click the button, the installation terminates. This has been noticed if you chose to create an ISO and are using a burned DVD or USB to install Windows 10.

Though not official, the problem is attributed to Language settings in Windows OS. Check the Language and Region settings in Control panel of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 that you are upgrading using the ISO file. The fix is widely used is to re-download the US English Language pack and install it on the computer you are trying to upgrade. That is, you have to go to Control Panel, open the Language and Settings and make sure US English is installed. You may have to install the language pack again for Windows 10 ISO to work. Go here to see how to install language packs in Windows.

A better fix is to use “Upgrade This PC” option using the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool. The latter option would remove the need to create ISO-based installation media (DVD or USB) and will do an in-place upgrade of Windows 10. The in-place upgrade does not, likely, go wrong with the weird “something happened” message according to reports on social media. You will need an active Internet connection, though, for every PC you upgrade this way.

In short, performing an in-place upgrade is a better option than going for ISO files of Windows 10 as of now.

The “Something Happened” message is too vague and does not tell you what went wrong. The second line too, as in the image, says “something happened”. Right now, it has become the center of jokes and memes on social media. Microsoft may soon publish a proper fix or explanation for the error message. I am expecting that, at least.

2] Start menu cannot hold more than 512 items

Though 512 is a big number and I do not think anyone would pin that many programs or apps to the Start menu, it is still a known issue in Windows 10 that if you go for more than 512 apps, they will disappear from the Start menu. As long as the number of apps pinned to the Start menu is less than 512, the app tiles will be visible properly. If you cross the number, the Start menu is messed up.

Microsoft has information on this, and they are working to remove the cap.

3] Clipboard issues in Windows 10

Windows 10 sometimes doesn’t copy using Ctrl+C. There is no fix except to press the key combination again and again until it is copied to the clipboard. Another better option is to right click and from the context menu that appears, select COPY or CUT as the case may be.

4] Windows Store Crashes

This is more of the Store app issue than being a Windows 10 operating system issue. The Windows 10 store app keeps on crashing when you try to download anything. The issue was reported by many – including TWC authors.

There is no fix for the issue, but it has been notified to Windows team. I am hoping the issue will be fixed soon. But meanwhile, you can see point 3 of Windows 10 Guru Fixes.

5] Wireless networks are not available

After you upgrade from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 Pro or Windows 10 Enterprise, no wireless networks are available. Wired Ethernet connections may also not function properly if you are using built-in Ethernet adapter or a USB Ethernet adapter. This could occur due to the presence of unsupported VPN software. If you are facing this issue, read Wi-Fi does not work after upgrading to Windows 10.

6] Start Menu or Taskbar not working

Some users who upgraded are finding out that their Start Menu does not open in Windows 10. This post will help you fix the problem. See this post if your Taskbar is not working in Windows 10.

7] Windows Store apps are not opening

If Windows Store apps are not opening in Windows 10, after you upgraded, then this post will show you how to fix the problem quickly.

8] Windows Store is not opening

If Windows 10 Store is not working, then run this troubleshooter & fixer from Microsoft.

9] Windows 10 Settings app does not open

For some, the Windows 10 Settings app does not open or launch. Or it opens the Store app instead. Use the Fix-It mentioned in the tool. Update KB3081424 will prevent the issue from re-occurring.

10] NVIDIA Graphic Cards not compatible

The graphics drivers are not compatible with Windows 10 at the moment. NVIDIA is working on the issue and soon it will provide compatible drivers so that users can upgrade to Windows 10 without problems. You can search for your NVIDIA GeForce drivers here. Nvidia has released new WHQL drivers for Windows 10.

11] INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE error

See this post if you receive INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE error after you have upgraded to Windows 10.

12] Office documents do not open

Go here if after upgrading to Windows 10, you find that some of your Office Word, Excel or PowerPoint documents do not open.

13] Installation, Upgrade & Activation problems

14] Windows 10 can’t connect to Internet

15] Quick Access is not working

16] Windows 10 Sound not working

See this post if you need to fix Windows 10 Sound and Audio problems

17] Other

Microsoft has also released a set of automated solutions and troubleshooters to solve Windows 10 problems. If you are facing other issues, please search on this website. I am sure that you will find some solution. Check this post if you have Full-screen problems while playing games, etc and this one if Files are missing after Windows 10 upgrade. This post will help you if your Windows 10 can’t find DVD or CD drive – and this one if your PC crashes with a Blue Screen when you launch Edge browser.

See this post for some possible resolutions for your Windows 10 Anniversary Update problems.

NOTES:

1. Click here if you cant find your problem and search for it. Chances are high that you will find some help.
2. Windows 10 users may want to download FixWin 10 for Windows 10. It automates many fixes and lets you resolve issues in a click!
3. Windows Software Repair Tool from Microsoft will repair system components and detect corrupt files, resync System date and Time, reset System Settings, reinstall System Applications and run the DISM Tool to repair system image, with a click.

If you know of anything more that can be included in the list, please comment.

Incidentally, Microsoft has made it easier for you to contact Support if you face any problems while using Windows 10. See how to use the Contact Support app.

Updated on 15 Sept 2018.

Date: July 30, 2018 Tags: Windows 10

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[email protected]

Arun Kumar is a Microsoft MVP alumnus, obsessed with technology, especially the Internet. He deals with the multimedia content needs of training and corporate houses. Follow him on Twitter @PowercutIN

[Bug] Windows 10 bugs that I encountered

Hi, I have install a clean new version of Windows 10 and I’m getting this few errors, sometimes few times a days, sometimes just once.

Under System in Event Viewer

The server CortanaUI.AppXd4tad4d57t4wtdbnnmb8v2xtzym8c1n8.mca did not register with DCOM within the required timeout.

The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID
<9e175b6d-f52a-11d8-b9a5-505054503030>
and APPID
<9e175b9c-f52a-11d8-b9a5-505054503030>
to the user THERMAL-PC\Thermal SID (S-1-5-21-1188622577-2890739321-3583596569-1001) from address LocalHost (Using LRPC) running in the application container Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_20.10240.16384.0_neutral__8wekyb3d8bbwe SID (S-1-15-2-3624051433-2125758914-1423191267-1740899205-1073925389-3782572162-737981194). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

Error ID: 7031
The Sync Host_Session1 service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s). The following corrective action will be taken in 10000 milliseconds: Restart the service.

The Sync Host_Session2 service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s). The following corrective action will be taken in 10000 milliseconds: Restart the service.

Error ID: 10010
The server did not register with DCOM within the required timeout.

The server CortanaUI.AppXd4tad4d57t4wtdbnnmb8v2xtzym8c1n8.mca did not register with DCOM within the required timeout.

The User Data Access_Session1 service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s). The following corrective action will be taken in 10000 milliseconds: Restart the service.

The User Data Storage_Session1 service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s). The following corrective action will be taken in 10000 milliseconds: Restart the service.

The Contact Data_Session1 service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s). The following corrective action will be taken in 10000 milliseconds: Restart the service.

Under Application

A fatal alert was generated and sent to the remote endpoint. This may result in termination of the connection. The TLS protocol defined fatal error code is 10. The Windows SChannel error state is 10.

You can disable Schannel logs in registry by changing this value

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL 0 instead of 1 on REG_DWORD EventLogging.

or maybe they fix this and there will be no need for disabling.

Activation of app Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy!CortanaUI failed with error: The app didn’t start. See the Microsoft-Windows-TWinUI/Operational log for additional information.

FIXED in Threshold 2

I found out that window position is not remembered on Win 10 and on every other previous versions of windows it was. I noticed it when I open some folder and put him in the center of monitor and close it, he is in different position when I reopen him.

Still Bug

Clean install no funny things on startup or any suspicious ones, I even try to disable few things that I don’t use in Services, and boot is 20+ seconds slower than on Win 8.1. And it is the same disk that Win 8.1 was on (disk is WD Black SATA3 600 MB/s 100% healty),. Why is that, I mean it’s new OS, speed should be same or at least faster than in previous OS not slower.

I ask on few forums, everyone is getting them, so it’s not just my problem, it’s microsoft problem.

Windows 10 bug crashes your PC when you access this location

Lawrence Abrams

A bug in Windows 10 causes the operating system to crash with a Blue Screen of Death simply by opening a certain path in a browser’s address bar or using other Windows commands.

Last week, BleepingComputer learned of two bugs disclosed on Twitter by a Windows security researcher that can be abused by attackers in various attacks.

The first bug allows an unprivileged user or program to enter a single command that causes an NTFS volume to become marked as corrupted. While chkdsk resolved this issue in many tests, one of our tests showed that the command caused corruption on a hard drive that prevented Windows from starting.

Today, we look at the second bug that causes Windows 10 to perform a BSOD crash by merely attempting to open an unusual path.

Opening this path causes a BSOD

A Windows 10 bug first discovered by security researcher Walied Assar, and later publicly disclosed by security researcher Jonas Lykkegaard, causes Windows 10 to crash and display a BSOD when a special path is entered into the Chrome address bar.

When developers want to interact with Windows devices directly, they can pass a Win32 device namespace path as an argument to various Windows programming functions. For example, this allows an application to interact directly with a physical disk without going through the file system.

Lykkegaard told BleepingComputer that he discovered the following Win32 device namespace path for the ‘console multiplexer driver’ that he believes is used for ‘kernel / usermode ipc.’ When opening the path in various ways, even from low-privileged users, it would cause Windows 10 to crash.

When connecting to this device, developers are expected to pass along the ‘attach’ extended attribute to communicate with the device properly.

Lykkegaard discovered if you try to connect to the path without passing the attribute due to improper error checking, it will cause an exception that causes a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) crash in Windows 10.

Even worse, low privileged Windows users can attempt to connect to the device using this path, making it easy for any program executed on a computer to crash Windows 10.

In our tests, we have confirmed this bug to be present on Windows 10 version 1709 and later. BleepingComputer was unable to test it in earlier versions.

BleepingComputer reached out to Microsoft last week to learn if they knew of the bug already and if they would fix the bug.

“Microsoft has a customer commitment to investigate reported security issues and we will provide updates for impacted devices as soon as possible,” a Microsoft spokesperson told BleepingComputer.

Threat actors can abuse the bug

While it has not been determined if this bug could be exploited for remote code execution or elevation privilege, in its current form, it can be used as a denial of service attack on a computer.

Lykkegaard shared with BleepingComputer a Windows URL file (.url) with a setting pointing to \\.\globalroot\device\condrv\kernelconnect. When the file is downloaded, Windows 10 would try to render the URL file’s icon from the problematic path and automatically crash Windows 10.

BleepingComputer has since found numerous other ways to exploit this bug, including methods to cause BSODs automatically on Windows login.

In a real-life scenario, this bug could be abused by threat actors who have access to a network and want to cover their trail during an attack.

If they have admin credentials, they could remotely execute a command that accesses this path on all of the Windows 10 devices on a network to cause them to crash. The havoc caused on the network could delay investigations or prevent administrative controls from detecting an attack on a particular computer.

In 2017, a similar attack scenario was used by threat actors during a bank heist on the Far Eastern International Bank (FEIB) in Taiwan. In that attack, the threat actors deployed the Hermes ransomware on the network to delay investigations into the attack.

Update 2/8/21: Added Walied Assar as the original discoverer of this vulnerability.