J
JSpencer1
Hi,
I believe I download and installed some old software, possibly with malware, that seems to have corrupted some basic functions and apps of Windows, and while I spent a hefty amount of time troubleshooting this with a very helpful Malwarebytes admin, nothing seemed to help. I am about to do a reset on the Windows to start over, but it's the kind of thing that makes me still want to find a solution that makes sense, just to know what is going on. Before I hit reset, I hope to maybe get a few new possible takes that might explain the behavior.
It's been over 2 months now, where I can still use the computer for most everything I need, including Office, Chrome, Quickbooks, Shotcut, PowerBI...basically most non Windows System apps work just fine. Some apps like MSPaint work. I have figured out how to get around some of the limitations, and aside from those, the PC is still functional. BTW, this is a new Dell Laptop, only 8 months old, preinstalled with Windows 10.
What I can't run is Windows apps like Phone, Calculator, Search, Calendar (on the clock), Windows Defender configurations or scan, Start Menu. Often they will start with the splash screen and then fail, with process explorer showing them starting up and ending, plus entries within the Event viewer such as "Faulting application name: ShellExperienceHost.exe, version: 10.0.18362.1171, time stamp: 0x5f800df7
Faulting module name: twinapi.appcore.dll, version: 10.0.18362.1316, time stamp: 0xf0e5c379", with the twinapi.appcore.dll showing up many times even with different executables, like calc.exe or searchui.exe.
Also, I can't right click on taskbar items for a context menu, but I can on the Start button. I can left click on taskbar items to open them up, but left clicking on the start button does nothing. Search will not work from any location, i.e. Explorer or Search from the context menu.
I have multiple applications using MSAccess that work fine that have library references to various libraries such as MS Access 15 Object Library, but a new application I built since this happens tries to use the MS Word 15 Object Library fails with a "library not registered error". Trying to register it again manually has no effect.
Malwarebytes finds no problem software, SFC scannow, DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth, does nothing, Powershell Get-AppxPackage -allusers | foreach {Add-AppxPackage -register “$($_.InstallLocation)appxmanifest.xml” -DisableDevelopmentMode} runs with no errors. We even tried rootkit malware checks, kind of everything. Created new profile, no go. Reinstalled apps from windows app settings, no go.
So again, I'm just about ready to reset everything, but it just drives me crazy that there isn't a clue how this is happening. How can all of these great new troubleshooting tools that are available run just fine but then do nothing? Especially simple functions like Calc.exe. Is there anything that we could have missed, some other magic bullet? It's not a matter of losing all my programs and reinstalling them anymore, it's just curiosity and hopefully learning something new.
Thanks!
J
BTW windows update works, but its not able to install the May 20 update yet
Continue reading...
I believe I download and installed some old software, possibly with malware, that seems to have corrupted some basic functions and apps of Windows, and while I spent a hefty amount of time troubleshooting this with a very helpful Malwarebytes admin, nothing seemed to help. I am about to do a reset on the Windows to start over, but it's the kind of thing that makes me still want to find a solution that makes sense, just to know what is going on. Before I hit reset, I hope to maybe get a few new possible takes that might explain the behavior.
It's been over 2 months now, where I can still use the computer for most everything I need, including Office, Chrome, Quickbooks, Shotcut, PowerBI...basically most non Windows System apps work just fine. Some apps like MSPaint work. I have figured out how to get around some of the limitations, and aside from those, the PC is still functional. BTW, this is a new Dell Laptop, only 8 months old, preinstalled with Windows 10.
What I can't run is Windows apps like Phone, Calculator, Search, Calendar (on the clock), Windows Defender configurations or scan, Start Menu. Often they will start with the splash screen and then fail, with process explorer showing them starting up and ending, plus entries within the Event viewer such as "Faulting application name: ShellExperienceHost.exe, version: 10.0.18362.1171, time stamp: 0x5f800df7
Faulting module name: twinapi.appcore.dll, version: 10.0.18362.1316, time stamp: 0xf0e5c379", with the twinapi.appcore.dll showing up many times even with different executables, like calc.exe or searchui.exe.
Also, I can't right click on taskbar items for a context menu, but I can on the Start button. I can left click on taskbar items to open them up, but left clicking on the start button does nothing. Search will not work from any location, i.e. Explorer or Search from the context menu.
I have multiple applications using MSAccess that work fine that have library references to various libraries such as MS Access 15 Object Library, but a new application I built since this happens tries to use the MS Word 15 Object Library fails with a "library not registered error". Trying to register it again manually has no effect.
Malwarebytes finds no problem software, SFC scannow, DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth, does nothing, Powershell Get-AppxPackage -allusers | foreach {Add-AppxPackage -register “$($_.InstallLocation)appxmanifest.xml” -DisableDevelopmentMode} runs with no errors. We even tried rootkit malware checks, kind of everything. Created new profile, no go. Reinstalled apps from windows app settings, no go.
So again, I'm just about ready to reset everything, but it just drives me crazy that there isn't a clue how this is happening. How can all of these great new troubleshooting tools that are available run just fine but then do nothing? Especially simple functions like Calc.exe. Is there anything that we could have missed, some other magic bullet? It's not a matter of losing all my programs and reinstalling them anymore, it's just curiosity and hopefully learning something new.
Thanks!
J
BTW windows update works, but its not able to install the May 20 update yet
Continue reading...