server 2019 1809 2020-12 updates installed OK, all the way back to March when it was stood up.
Its a RDS server, and I originally configured clients VHDX files to be on a storage server. Very reliable for many months.
First came the complaints about slow log ins, a blank screen for several minutes when people signed in.
then the complaints about the Start menu and Search not working. the left mouse button would not open the Start menu, and users could not enter text in the Search field.
users couldn't figure out how to get to network shares, so I had to create shortcuts on the public desktop.
then the reliability issues. the server would accept connections but the desktop would never render. just a dark blank screen first for several minutes, then then the GUI would never render until the server was powered off and on.
the event viewer start filling up DCOM errors in the system log every time a user signed in. Always about Cortona.
log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-DistributedCOM
Date: 12/18/2020 2:23:22 PM
Event ID: 10001
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: domain\user
Computer: server.domain
Unable to start a DCOM Server: Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_1.11.6.17763_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy!CortanaUI as Unavailable/Unavailable. The error:
"0"
Happened while starting this command:
"C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\SearchUI.exe" -ServerName:CortanaUI.AppXa50dqqa5gqv4a428c9y1jjw7m3btvepj.mca
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-DistributedCOM" Guid="{1B562E86-B7AA-4131-BADC-B6F3A001407E}" EventSourceName="DCOM" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">10001</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8080000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2020-12-18T20:23:22.975245900Z" />
<EventRecordID>622171</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="2128" ThreadID="50464" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>RDS.andresmedical.local</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-21-1177238915-1897051121-725345543-7972" />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="param1">"C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\SearchUI.exe" -ServerName:CortanaUI.AppXa50dqqa5gqv4a428c9y1jjw7m3btvepj.mca</Data>
<Data Name="param2">0</Data>
<Data Name="param3">Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_1.11.6.17763_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy!CortanaUI</Data>
<Data Name="param4">Unavailable</Data>
<Data Name="param5">Unavailable</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>
SFC /scannow found nothing
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth with the source switch said it found issues and fixed them but...
a few days later the server was stuck with blank screens again!
I reset profiles to be stored on the C drive and that was not a fix. Start worked briefly. a few days later the server was stuck with blank screens again!
what started as an annoyance mutated into a big disruption. Seen many posts talking about the broken start but not much success.
if I navigate to C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\SearchUI.exe and run as admin,
Unable to start a DCOM Server: Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_1.11.6.17763_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy!CortanaUI.AppXfbn8w4s0jbk3tjevpcn9kaxerc6rby8k.mca as Unavailable/Unavailable. The error:
"0"
Happened while starting this command:
"C:\Windows\system32\backgroundTaskHost.exe" -ServerName:CortanaUI.AppXy7vb4pc2dr3kc93kfc509b1d0arkfb2x.mca
will I have to rebuild from scratch or can this server be saved?
Hi @Björn Braun
Please take a look at this post to reset the ADD.BrokerPlugin
Andrew
Oh man,
that did it. Well I did not follow the instructions and just purged Teams from a server. The problem occurred again after 6 days. This morning at first login the user also opened teams. Cortana, Shellexperiencehost, aadbroker and searchui were all inoperable. After purging Teams I ran:
And it fixed everything. When users logged in again, Outlook and everything else worked fine. No DCOM Errors in Eventlog.
What I don't get. Why does this seem to happen after 3-7 days runtime.
According to Teams it was last updated in Dec. 18th 2020. We startet having problems with it in Jan 2021
We also have Office Updates disabled on a few systems. Maybe it could also be a problem but for now removing teams is fine by me
Thanks alot!
Well that didn't last long
Errors appeared 2 hours later. However I restored a previous snapshot of this particular RDS Server and checked the registry
Turns out its an old 2016 bug.
Open regedit
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\FirewallRules
FirewallRules contained about 50k + entries. Deleted all entries containing {} and left standard entries untouched.
Took a very long time to delete.
There are scripts out there to automate this.
Didn't think this problem still exists, especially since firewall was disabled.
Sign in to comment