Windows Server 2019 RDS - Start & Search does not work, desktops don't load

Question

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?

Answer 1

I guess we found a solution or at least the right combination of solutions.

Since this problem kept reappearing even after we cleared out most of the bloated keys. So we looked and oh boy there was another.

Hiding in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\RestrictedServices\AppIso\FirewallRules

Within were about half a million entries... needles to say it took regedit about an hour to open it.

So I removed it via powershell

Remove-Item "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\RestrictedServices\AppIso\FirewallRules"

New-Item "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\RestrictedServices\AppIso\FirewallRules"

After this, you don't even need to reboot. Just log off all users and login again. Startmenu and everything else will work as it should.

To prevent this from happening

Set DWORD "DeleteUserAppContainersOnLogoff = 1
in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy

Make sure to Cleat out \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\FirewallRules first. With a script or manual.

If you don't clean first, loggin off users will take a very long time. If everyhting is clean then logoff will take slightly longer because it will clean up all user entries by itself hence not bloating the keys again.

Answer 2

Hi,

Please first check the general troubleshooting steps for Event 10001.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2008-R2-and-2008/cc774391(v=ws.10)?redirectedfrom=MSDN

And have you tried to reinstall Cortona?

Run PowerShell command as an administrator:
Get-AppXPackage -Name Microsoft.Windows.Cortana | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

Thanks,
Eleven

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Answer 3

Unable to reinstall Cortana, see below
Description:
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
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="2020-12-18T20:55:37.198494600Z" />
<EventRecordID>622336</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="2128" ThreadID="65020" />
<Channel>System</Channel>

Answer 4

We are also running a 2019 RDS Farm and we have had this exact same issue with the Start Menu not working this week. Initially it was on one host, and now it is happening on two hosts! We ran the command on one host and it has fixed it. We have not ran it on the second host yet, as we had to stop it taking connections as it was causing so many issues for users.

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

Does MS know why this is happening? Has a Jan update caused this issue? It is very worrying since most of our staff are currently WFH and are relying on the RDS servers to be able to work effectively.

Many Thanks
Paul.

Answer 5

We are having similar issue with our 2019 RDS farm as well, seems like it just slowly showing up on rest of our servers in the farm.
When I ran the below command it fixed the issue on couple of our RDS server but seems to popped up back after like 3 to 4 days ,

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

Can't really say what the root cause is, hope someone have an answer that is a permanent fix, hope this is not one of those Microsoft bug .