Cannot open certain apps like mmc.exe from start menu and/or troubleshooter opens with error.

Question

Cannot open certain apps like mmc.exe from start menu and/or troubleshooter opens with error.

Felix Thau 10

On all of our Windows Server 2019 Servers we can't open apps like mmc.exe with windows search or the start menu. Simply nothing happens. No error, no message, nothing.

mmcnotopening

If we try to open the app from its saved folder the app opens with no problems.

mmcoffen

Opening mmc.exe with win+r does work aswell.

Then another problem, which is related to the prior problem I guess, is that if we try to open troubleshoot and I mean any troubleshoot, an error pops up.

opentroubleshooterror

And we can access the troubleshoot app from its folder or via cmd like in the problem mentioned above.

troubleshootopenfile

troubleshootopencmd

I tried sfc /scannow and dism, but both tools could not find any problems. The server I am showing you is a fresh install and only got its recend updates from october.

Jurriaan Vreeburg 0 Reputation points

2023-11-22T07:33:01.63+00:00

Same problem here: I log on to the server with [domain]\administrator. If I try to start mmc from the start menu, nothing happens. If I try to start Manage Computer Certificates an error pops up:

"Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item."

If I log on to the server using another account that is a member of [domain]\administrators, I do not have a problem. I decided to ditch the local user profile of [domain]\administrator. So after logon, a new user profile is created, but still I have the issue. It seams that the problem is restricted to only [domain]\administrator.

I think it is related to the latest (November 14th) Windows Updates. All my Server 2019 machines that have been updated have the same issue. Servers that don't have the update can still launch mmc.exe and and Manage Computer Certificates from the start menu.