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

After removing 70k+ Firewall entries within the registry all our 2019 RDS Servers ran smoothly for about 2 weeks.
One has shown the same problems again today.

At first we notice it because of clients complaining about outlook not being able to connect to o365.
They do not notice the start menu not working cause we have blocked almost everything with gpo. Anyhow eventlog showed once more that shellexperience, cortana and microsoft.aad.broker would not function.

until now no other rds server have shown any sign or this problem. So I hope this was just a "bad day".

Alternatively I found

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/ie/en-US/c212e6d7-160d-4a54-bfc6-92bd720fc424/windows-2016-rds-start-menu-not-working-getappxpackage-returns-nothing?forum=winserverTS

which gives hints about removing some notification keys. However when I did just that the RDS became unusable. Also I only had about 100 entries or less. Nothing compared to 70k.

The only solution now is to restore a snapshot. I restored a 4 day old one so we will see if this will happen again in about 4 days from now.

Our RDS Servers are now very unreliable and there seems to be no way to solve it. For us it started in Jan and the runtime of each rds does not seem to matter. Some are 8 months old, some 1 1/2 years. Within weeks each developed the problem

Answer 2

Also for me, same problem again!

Answer 3

We had the same problem on all our 2019 RDP Host servers a few months ago.
They were rebuilt but unfortunately the problem has returned. :'(

Start menu broken
Office activation failed
Event viewer full of :

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

and

Unable to start a DCOM Server: Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_1000.17763.1.0_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy!Windows.Security.Authentication.Web.Core.BackgroundGetTokenTask.ClassId.WebAccountProvider as Unavailable/Unavailable. The error:
"0"
Happened while starting this command:
"C:\Windows\system32\BackgroundTaskHost.exe" -ServerName:BackgroundTaskHost.WebAccountProvider

Answer 4

Just came here to say that we encountered this problem with our RDS 2019 session hosts this week.

The steps above provided by @Björn Braun fixed the issues for us.

Answer 5

I'm hoping someone reads this "old" post still, since we are still having major issues with the above problems.

I've tried every single solution I can find on web, and tried all the above - and still I get plenty of errors in event viewer, and nothing seems to work.

Only thing that works so far:

• Make a new profile and move everything to the new vhdx (fslogix)
• Or delete everything from appdata\local from the current user.

But the last option is not at all viable, since every personal items from the user is wiped also, but at least is fixes startmenu and search. Copy in the FSLogix from Local to the new vhdx does give back all users items, but also make the startmenu and search unusable again.
I've tried also today to migrate-vhd / moveto-vhd to new vhdx created for the user, but after frx.exe is done, the problem is reappearing unfortunately.

I will gladly take ANY advice at this point, since we are probably making new users every week for our customers. Very frustrating to say the least.

RDSH consisting of Windows 2019 (1809)
FSLogix 2.9.7838.44263

When following is logged in eventviewer (repeating it self within 2 sec interval, filling up the event viewer), we know we need to contact the user because something is wrong with the vhdx -
The access history in hive \Device\HarddiskVolume22\Profile\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\Settings\settings.dat was cleared while updating x keys and creating x changed pages.