April 2018 update broke Chrome browser (Cryptographic Services bug)

Anonymous
2018-08-13T22:50:55+00:00

I updated to the April 2018 version of Win10 a couple months ago. It caused several issues and broke my Chrome browser completely, so I reverted back to the old version. But Microsoft forced another update on me, so I need this issue fixed somehow.

All the googling I've done says Microsoft has "fixed" this issue with the April update breaking Chrome, but I've installed all patches and they clearly haven't, not in my case. Pages simply refuse to load and time out.

I've narrowed the issue down to the "Cryptographic Services" service. If I stop the service, all of the Chrome pages instantly load and I have no issues for about an hour. It seems to be some sort of issue with certificates/SSL.

The problem is the service keeps restarting itself. I've tried setting it to "disabled," tried unchecking the service in System Configuration, nothing works. It always comes back and Chrome breaks. I'm sure there's good reason to keep it running but I'm not going to let Microsoft force me out of my favorite browser/bookmarks/extensions/etc. like this, and I can't keep stopping a service every hour just to browse the web.

So I need a solution please. And something specifically related to fixing the issue with Cryptographic Services preventing SSL on Chrome. I've done all the basic stuff like reinstalling Chrome, checking firewall settings, etc..

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Internet and connectivity

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-02-08T04:23:12+00:00

    Changing the CryptSvc logon account is know to break many things.. including Windows updates..

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-02-08T04:22:00+00:00

    Matthew: Looks like the PeerUsages value was lost in translation - cut&paste conversion, web display...

    Group Policy Registry Info - This is a Microsoft Win10 1803 spreadsheet of GPO items and registry values, but didn't contain Certification Path Validation Settings..

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-02-07T11:21:28+00:00

    Here is another thing to try. In Services > Cryptographic Services > Log On > Made sure that Log on as: Local system account is ticked and not This account. 

    Hope this helps someone

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-02-07T10:50:30+00:00

    Here is a trial for anybody with home edition (Win10)

    Log on to your computer with a local administrator account

    click here to download reg file to import

    (It seems this forum will not allow code to be pasted correctly even when typing it in manually!!)

    Save this registry file to your desktop or anywhere you can access on your local hard drive.

    backup the following key  to a place you will remember 

    HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\Root\ProtectedRoots]

    Now double click your saved file to import to your registry. (Remember it will only succeed if you have administrative rights. 

    Close registry editor, wait for about 30 seconds and then load up chrome.

    I setup a win 10 home computer to test the fix but chrome worked anyway regardless of the hack.

    I have however tested this on education and pro versions of win 10 and it works as desired. 

    If you revert the "flags" dword to 0 in the registry located at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\Root\ProtectedRoots] the problem with chrome returns.

    Please let me know if this works for you so we can get all you home users up and running with chrome again.

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  5. Anonymous
    2019-02-06T20:06:55+00:00

    Yes.  I have Windows Home and I don't have the Group Policy Editor.

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