Slow unresponsive apps post deploy

Alex Warren 161

Hey all,

I have created a customized Win10 21H1 image and we are getting some really odd behavior post deployment. First, it takes almost 10 minutes to log any domain user in, then all applications that aren't a built into Windows open and freeze about 5-10 seconds after opening. Some applications, like Adobe Acrobat, open and just freeze outright without trying to get the user to log into the cloud portal. However, it's kinda random as Adobe Creative Cloud (the app) will open, then immediately open a browser so that you can log into Adobe CC.

I'm not totally sure what else to troubleshoot as we have looked at just about every driver we can identify and most are older or WHQL drivers directly from MS. The others, like the video driver, we updated on the test computers with no discernible change in the system behavior. I'm open to any thoughts.

Alex Warren 161 Reputation points

2021-08-25T18:40:11.69+00:00

Update time:

We removed the Intel network driver circa 2018 and replaced it with the ASUS driver listed on their website, but that didn't seem to help. We are still getting a new user log in time of about 8 minutes (should be under 5) and the applications, including things like word and excel are still hanging when trying to open the first time.

Process monitor didn't really show us anything of note other than some things are trying to write to the administrator profile but are getting denied (normal for my images, I use copyprofile in the unattend.xml file to set the defaults for all my applications), and I had permissions on there to enable some traversing to subfolders for some applications that need it. Those permissions are gone on the image, but when I look at my template, they are still there and a previous image saved the changes.

We disabled the AV (Defender) and that didn't help, nor did stopping any of the remaining processes that weren't already disabled pre-capture. We haven't done any throughput tests to the DCs, but I'm not so sure that's the problem, I still thing it's something local and something specific to do with the network. We did have a network migration over the summer, but the existing images aren't affected in this way.

So, once again, I am baffled. We are removing some applications and recapturing to see if this helps it, but I genuinely thing it's a 21H1 issue, not a driver or application issue.
Alex Warren 161 Reputation points

2021-08-25T20:24:36.623+00:00

Another update, and this one may be significant:

Default user seems to be borked. My thought is that my customized security permissions borked the default user profile into not working properly. I"m prepping the template for capture again and will let y'all know.
Alex Warren 161 Reputation points

2021-08-26T19:14:31.703+00:00

More Updates:

We are still working on it, but our latest test didn't copy the administrator profile over the defualt user profile, and things worked a lot better. AutoDesk products are saying something about having a license issue, so we're gonna remove them and see if that makes the image usable. Everything else us usable but not customized and AutoDesk is really the newest variable in our image.

So we're gonna test it and let you all know.
Alex Warren 161 Reputation points

2021-08-27T20:07:17.037+00:00

Final update,

Well, it looks like AutoDesk was the bad actor here and it was doing something crazy with the network port that we didn't fully flush out. We removed the application (and all the other crap that it installs) and the only issue now is that when you open word/office for the first time, it hangs for about 3 minutes trying to see if the update settings have been selected. Once that's done, everything is fine.

Thanks for everyone's help and interest in this.
MotoX80 31,571 Reputation points

2021-08-27T21:10:41.79+00:00

Glad you found it.

Accepted answer

MotoX80 31,571 Reputation points

2021-08-25T00:06:33.377+00:00

I'm open to any thoughts.

Some random thoughts based on past troubleshooting episodes....

Trace one of your programs with Process Monitor and see if you can identify what calls the app is making during the 5-10 second freeze timeframe.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon

https://www.bing.com/search?q=how%20to%20troubleshoot%20with%20process%20monitor

Have you done any network throughput tests from the client to the DC's? Maybe test with dcdiag?

Standard response that I almost hate to suggest: turn off any antivirus software that you have installed.

Are you using a proxy to access the internet? Does the procmon trace show any internet calls? If you disable the NIC, do the programs launch any faster or produce any error messages?

Good luck.
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Alex Warren 161 Reputation points

2021-08-25T16:04:59.927+00:00

Thanks for the procmon idea, I didn't even consider that but we will use that in our next test.

We don't think it's a DC connectivity issue as the default profile is just about 1GB large and usually logs people in the first time in 2-3 minutes. I will run a throughput test, but from watching the network monitoring via performance monitor, there was minimal network usage. We also aren't using network proxies. I think the problem with disabling the NIC is that a lot of the programs for our labs require talking to a license server, and without that it chokes and either won't launch or just throw errors around until it sees the LS.

I'll try the AV thing, but I don't think that's it either. I think procmon is the right path here. I will update as I have seen this issue posted about all over the interwebz and having a solution may be helpful.
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1 additional answer

Limitless Technology 39,351 Reputation points

2021-08-25T11:14:38.55+00:00
Hello there,

As you say that non Microsoft Apps freezes can you confirm that is their any apps that sucks the memory and CPU in task manager . I would also suggest you to Clean boot or safe mode the PC and check if it behave the same .

Most probably an Antivirus software might cause these issues as they are given high priority among apps . Try uninstalling and reinstalling them.

Might be a Driver conflict , Update the BIOS and firmware from the PC website.

Might also be a Malware sucking the Processor , run a Deep Scan .

If none of them Works try a repair update .

Hope this Answers all your queries , if not please do repost back .
If an Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it : )

Regards

Mukesh S
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Alex Warren 161 Reputation points

2021-08-25T16:55:01.757+00:00

Hey Mukesh,

We were able to boot into safe mode and things worked better, so now we are trying to figure out which driver is borking. We are hoping Procmon can help with that, but we also think it's the network driver as once we enabled it after booting into safe mode a second time, things started borking again. So we are going to do a full removal and reinstall with original drivers to see if that fixes it.

Limitless Technology 39,351 Reputation points

2021-08-26T08:46:32.81+00:00

Hello obujuwami ,

So it seems you have exactly Identified the Drivers causing the issue , If not you can use the Procmon to find the drivers or the combination of drivers causing these issues . Usually a In place update might even sort this out , Give it a try and let us know the results of it .

Happy helping
Mukesh

Alex Warren 161 Reputation points

2021-08-26T19:09:06.357+00:00

Hey Mukesh,

It turned out not to be the network driver, but it looks to be related to one of the applicaiton settings when we capture the image and copy over the default profile. Right now, we are thinking this has a lot to do with AutoCAD and the licensing issues around it. We are still working on it, but our latest test didn't copy the administrator profile over the defualt user profile, and things worked a lot better. So we're gonna test it and let you all know.
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