Windows Server 2016 - New Users logging on to servers cannot use Start Menu or set

Question

Hello,

I have a really strange issue on one of my Windows Server 2016 servers shows very strange behavior and I cant seem to figure out the issue. The Windows Server version is 1607 OS Build: 14393.4402).

I cant say exactly when the issue started but today I noticed when users (AD or local) - which have never logged into the server before - log into the server then they see for about 20 seconds a black screen, then their session logs in and everything seems fine. However, these users are not able to use the Start Menu - when they click on it nothing happends - or they cannot change their Display Settings. Personalize does not work either. They get the error shown in the screenshot below.

What makes the issue really strange is that users which have been logged in a while back dont have these issues at all.

This server is a node in a SQL cluster which makes it difficult to just rebuild it and the second cluster node - same OU, same patch level, same settings, same apps etc does not show this behavior.

I checked the eventlogs but they do not seem to show anything useful besides this warning:

---Profile notification of event Create for component {2c86c843-77ae-4284-9722-27d65366543c} failed, error code is Not implemented --

I ran a SFC /SCANNOW and a CHKDSK but those both complete without an error.

I am at the point were i really dont know anymore what to do next but somehow I need to get this fixed.

Any help or pointing into the right direction is appreciated.

Thank you
Marcus

Answer 1

HI MarcusLehmann-5661,

1.Can we run below command in command prompt(open as admin)then check if it can find and solve system file issue?
dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

2.Please create a temp file in c disk and run below powershell command on issue server and share us which founction is it. Is it RDsession host server and installed SQL?
Get-WindowsFeature | ? { $.Installed } | Select Name | ForEach-Object { $.Name } | Out-File c:\temp\Features.txt

3." I noticed when users (AD or local) - which have never logged into the server before - log into the server then they see for about 20 seconds a black screen, "
Do you mean console logon(no RDP logon) the problematical server has black screen issue?

4.Please check the symptom in a clean boot (refer to windows 10 steps) environment if it is possible.
How to perform a clean boot in Windows
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

5.If the issue persist in cleanboot mode, we run powershell as admin and enter below command to check if we can open start menu.
Add-AppxPackage -register "C:\Windows\SystemApps\ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\appxmanifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode

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Answer 2

104854-features.txt

Hello JiaYou

Thank you very much for your answer.

1. I ran the commands below as local administrator
   dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth
   dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth Below are the output:

   ---

   C:\Windows\system32>dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
   Version: 10.0.14393.4169 Image Version: 10.0.14393.4169 [==========================100.0%==========================] The component store is repairable.
   The operation completed successfully. C:\Windows\system32>

   ---

   C:\Windows\system32>dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
   Version: 10.0.14393.4169 Image Version: 10.0.14393.4169 [==========================100.0%==========================]
   Error: 14 Not enough storage is available to complete this operation. The DISM log file can be found at C:\Windows\Logs\DISM\dism.log C:\Windows\system32>

   ---

   I was going to attach the dism.log file as well to the post but unfortunately the file is way too big I am currently looking at this error because there is 134G of free space on that drive.
2. The server is only a SQL Server. RDSession Host is not installed I attached the Features.txt file to this message. Note: I had to modify the command a little bit.
3. I only mentioned the black screen - which affected users see for about 20s - because I was hoping that it might help troubleshooting this. After 20s the users log in.

4 and 5 I will try after I got the DSIM issue resolved.

Thank you
Marcus

Answer 3

I tried step 4 and 5

1. Clean Boot did not change anything. The issue still exists with newly logged in users.
2. When I am logged in as one of the affected users then I can run the poweshell command but I am still not able to open the the Start Menu.

Additionally I tried to fix the DISM issue with the 'Not enough storage is available to complete this operation.' error but so far no luck.

Answer 4

HI

1.Please enable below logs first and check when issue happen, is there related log in below

C:\windows\system32\winevt\logs\

System.evtx
setup.evtx
application.evtx
Microsoft-Windows-Store%4Operational.evtx
Microsoft-Windows-AppReadiness%4Admin.evtx
Microsoft-Windows-AppReadiness%4Operational.evtx
Microsoft-Windows-AppXDeploymentServer%4Operational.evtx
Microsoft-Windows-AppXDeployment%4Operational.evtx
Microsoft-Windows-AppxPackaging%4Operational.evtx
Microsoft-Windows-TWinUI%4Operational.evtx

Event viewer\
Applications and Services Logs\microsoft\windows\wmi-activity
operational need enable
trace need enable
Applications and Services Logs\microsoft\windows\winlogon
Applications and Services Logs\microsoft\windows\userprofile

Tracing WMI Activity
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/wmisdk/tracing-wmi-activity

2.Please open PowerShell as Administrator and copy-paste the following command to try to fix startmenu not open.
Get-AppxPackage -allusers | foreach {Add-AppxPackage -register "$($_.InstallLocation)\appxmanifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode}

2.1Please check again for above logs and find if there is start menu related log.

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Answer 5

HI MarcusLehmann-5661,

Is there anything I can help you?