R
Rainer Meier
This is rather a solution description than a question as I found a solution myself.
I own an HP Reverb G2 headset and connected it according to the description. Also "Windows Mixed Reality" and "HP Reverb G2 VR Headset Setup" apps were properly installed upon connecting the headset.
After completing the setup procedure including successful room boundary setup and controller pairing my headset was just showing a black screen. Windows Mixed Reality Home did never show up on the VR headset. However the chaperone (room boundaries) did show up in the headset when approaching my room boundaries. So the headset was working for sure. It just did not show any content other than the chaperone. So I could only stand in a black void.
Googling a bit brought up a couple of related threads on Microsoft Answers (e.g. here), Reddit (e.g. here) etc. But nobody seems to have solved the problem. Granted some issues might have d different source.
In my special case I am also using Windows Domain accounts with roaming user profiles. There are a number of reports about the app platform specifically misbehaving in such configurations. In early versions of Windows 10 Apps did not work at all when using roaming profiles. Meanwhile some fixes were implemented and partially some of the issues got fixed by Microsoft. I also came across some reports suspecting the "App Readiness" service causing WMR black screen issues specifically on Dell machines as this service was found running on Dell deployment images. However I don't believe this is an issue. The service is set to "Manual" execution and it fixes app issues specifically for domain user accounts. Disabling this service caused all my apps to dysfunction when roaming to another computer. So please do not mess with the service settings.
However I found another source of problems. Using procmon utilities I found the Mixed Reality Portal to access the registry key at "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Holographic" and failing due to access permissions.
Inspecting the key revealed that there was a bare SID listed in the ACLs of this key which my local Windows 10 20H2 could not resolve. Removing it and providing read access to "ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES" SID did also resolve the issue with WMR Portal. Windows Mixed Reality Home was loading and displaying properly and my headset was finally alive.
I think the root cause might be that at some point in time the SID of the "ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES" has changed. My roaming profile was migrated all the way from Windows 8 I believe. So my registry permissions might still have ACLs set by Windows 8. Well it looks like Microsoft did not care too much and did not even think that users might continue to use their existing user profiles. The same issue might occur if Windows 8/8.1 is upgraded to Windows 10 or perhaps even if a user profile is kept since early days of Windows 10.
If you face problems with the Windows 10 App platform it's always advised to first create another local (non-domain) user account and check if the problem vanishes. If it does, try re-creating your domain user profile (specifically if you use roaming profiles). I know that in some cases (like mine) it's not an acceptable solution to just trash the complete profile and begin re-configuring, re-registering and re-activating all applications. So you want to keep your profile. If this is the case keep in mind that your profile might have ACLs set to SIDs no longer existing in current Windows version as Microsoft seems to break compatibility by occasionally changing them.
Another source for potential errors (not specifically this one) are also missing folders in %LocalAppData% directory. If you are using a corporate environment including roaming profiles your profile %AppData% (the "roaming" part of the profile) is fetched from the server on initial logon, including your HKCU registry. However the %LocalAppData% folder is not roaming (and yes, it should not) but some applications fail to re-create lost/deleted folders in %LocalAppData% on the fly so the applications fail to load. Re-Installing applications might fix the problem sometimes or manually creating the missing folders.
General checklist for issues with the app platform and domain profiles:
Continue reading...
I own an HP Reverb G2 headset and connected it according to the description. Also "Windows Mixed Reality" and "HP Reverb G2 VR Headset Setup" apps were properly installed upon connecting the headset.
After completing the setup procedure including successful room boundary setup and controller pairing my headset was just showing a black screen. Windows Mixed Reality Home did never show up on the VR headset. However the chaperone (room boundaries) did show up in the headset when approaching my room boundaries. So the headset was working for sure. It just did not show any content other than the chaperone. So I could only stand in a black void.
Googling a bit brought up a couple of related threads on Microsoft Answers (e.g. here), Reddit (e.g. here) etc. But nobody seems to have solved the problem. Granted some issues might have d different source.
In my special case I am also using Windows Domain accounts with roaming user profiles. There are a number of reports about the app platform specifically misbehaving in such configurations. In early versions of Windows 10 Apps did not work at all when using roaming profiles. Meanwhile some fixes were implemented and partially some of the issues got fixed by Microsoft. I also came across some reports suspecting the "App Readiness" service causing WMR black screen issues specifically on Dell machines as this service was found running on Dell deployment images. However I don't believe this is an issue. The service is set to "Manual" execution and it fixes app issues specifically for domain user accounts. Disabling this service caused all my apps to dysfunction when roaming to another computer. So please do not mess with the service settings.
However I found another source of problems. Using procmon utilities I found the Mixed Reality Portal to access the registry key at "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Holographic" and failing due to access permissions.
Inspecting the key revealed that there was a bare SID listed in the ACLs of this key which my local Windows 10 20H2 could not resolve. Removing it and providing read access to "ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES" SID did also resolve the issue with WMR Portal. Windows Mixed Reality Home was loading and displaying properly and my headset was finally alive.
I think the root cause might be that at some point in time the SID of the "ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES" has changed. My roaming profile was migrated all the way from Windows 8 I believe. So my registry permissions might still have ACLs set by Windows 8. Well it looks like Microsoft did not care too much and did not even think that users might continue to use their existing user profiles. The same issue might occur if Windows 8/8.1 is upgraded to Windows 10 or perhaps even if a user profile is kept since early days of Windows 10.
If you face problems with the Windows 10 App platform it's always advised to first create another local (non-domain) user account and check if the problem vanishes. If it does, try re-creating your domain user profile (specifically if you use roaming profiles). I know that in some cases (like mine) it's not an acceptable solution to just trash the complete profile and begin re-configuring, re-registering and re-activating all applications. So you want to keep your profile. If this is the case keep in mind that your profile might have ACLs set to SIDs no longer existing in current Windows version as Microsoft seems to break compatibility by occasionally changing them.
Another source for potential errors (not specifically this one) are also missing folders in %LocalAppData% directory. If you are using a corporate environment including roaming profiles your profile %AppData% (the "roaming" part of the profile) is fetched from the server on initial logon, including your HKCU registry. However the %LocalAppData% folder is not roaming (and yes, it should not) but some applications fail to re-create lost/deleted folders in %LocalAppData% on the fly so the applications fail to load. Re-Installing applications might fix the problem sometimes or manually creating the missing folders.
General checklist for issues with the app platform and domain profiles:
- Try if the problem persists with a local (non-domain) account which is freshly created
- Try creating a new local profile by backing up all your data, logging on with local admin account and deleting the profile causing the issue (Settings > System > About > Advanced System Settings > Advanced, click "Settings" in "User Profiles" section and delete the profile causing issues) - WARNING; this will erase all locally stored data of the user
- If you are using roaming profiles, try creating a new profile, if this is not possible/desired check permissions on files and registry
Continue reading...