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
    2018-08-15T13:57:31+00:00

    Hi Bob,

    For us to sort out this problem with Chrome, please perform the following steps:

    1. Launch Chrome and kindly open an Incognito window.
    2. Try opening or accessing any websites.
    3. If the websites open, then clear its cache and cookies.

    You may also remove unnecessary extensions from your browser to free some space. Here's how:

    1. Launch Chrome.
    2. At the top-right corner, click More .
    3. Select More tools, then Extensions.
    4. Identify the extensions that you don't use, then click Remove.

    If the above steps won't work, then please start your PC in safe mode and perform the following:

    • Stop and restart the****Cryptographic Service.
    1. Right-click the Windows key and select Command Prompt (Admin).
    2. At the command prompt, type in net stop cryptsvc, then press Enter.
    3. Type in net start cryptsvc, then press Enter.
    • Run the System File Checker tool.
    1. In the search box on the taskbar, enter Command Prompt.
    2. Press and hold (or right-click) Command Prompt (Desktop app) from the search results and select Run as administrator.
    3. Enter DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth (note the space before each "/"). (Note: This step may take a few minutes to start and up to 30 minutes to run and complete.)
    4. Enter sfc /scannow (note the space between "sfc" and "/").

    Please update this thread with the results so we can further check on the issue should it persist.

    Regards.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-08-21T04:07:13+00:00

    I am having the same issue and none of the above solutions worked. I have to stop crypto services every time I want to use Chrome.

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-09-03T22:58:20+00:00

    I'm having this same problem, seems to becoming a wide-spread issue.

    Did a full, clean install to Windows 10 Pro, and after it installed the feature update 1803, all my apps are now broken

    • Chrome
    • Vivaldi
    • Microsoft Store
    • Edge
    • iTunes

    I have to stop cryptographic services for these services to work, and opening various apps seems to start crypto services which then makes it incredibly annoying.

    MS need get a patch for this and fix it.

    MS technician - do a google search for "windows 10 cryptographic services chrome" for the past month and you'll see this is a thing, not just a one-off.

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-09-03T23:08:49+00:00

    Some How-To Geek information on Chrome crashes ---

    https://www.howtogeek.com/363826/why-is-chrome-telling-me-to-update-or-remove-incompatible-applications/

    I don't know if this will help you or not.

    It's still worth reading.🙂

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-09-03T23:12:37+00:00

    Yea that doesn't help.

    One thing I'm pointing out is that this is not limited to chrome, it seems that other apps that need to make HTTPS requests also are experiencing this.

    I was trying to use the Microsoft Store app to install iTunes, and I had to kill crypto services so that it would load the app page in the store. Once I installed iTunes and tried to sign in, I had to kill crypto services again for itunes to work.

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