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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-06-24T20:36:59+00:00

    Hello, This does not work with WIndows  10 Pro 2019

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-07-05T22:15:48+00:00

    This issue was driving me insane! Thanks to your simple well put directions I can now use Chrome again without that blasted "Establishing a secure connection"

    Thank you!

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-07-18T10:59:15+00:00

    I'm stuck with a similar issue. Chrome was acting funky so I Googled possible fixes and went on cryptographic services, clicked "log on", "local system account", and "allow services to interact with desktop". I can't troubleshoot, install updates, revert/restore, and now basically nothing works. Any solutions? 

    If it helps, I'm using Windows 10 home edition and I'm pretty computer illiterate.

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-07-18T18:45:30+00:00

    I Left Caps ON:  Changing the CryptSvc logon to 'local system' is a known bad fix, causing the problems you describe.  See my June 07, 2019 reply and read forward from there. 

    You need to undo the account change and use one of the other 2 fixes:

    a) (simplest) Get the .reg file and apply by clicking on it - that disables personal trusted certificates, which very few people need.  Use **CA HKLM_Pol_PR-DisableCA.reg,**attached to Chrome bug report:  CR838707 comment #213

    b) Apply the 4 step registry cleanup for HKEY_CURRENT_USER...ProtectedRoots mentioned repeatedly here.

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  5. Anonymous
    2019-07-18T19:03:59+00:00

    Request for comment votes:

    Please use your votes for 'Help me, Did not help me' to help rate the good & bad solutions.  Maybe if enough of us do this, people will stop using the bad solutions.

    Definitely bad: 

    -Change CryptSvc logon account to Local System - breaks future updates

    Good:

    -apply registry change to disable private authentication certificates

    Best: 

    -Registry cleanup to delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER...Protected roots

    First mentioned (here) by Peter Nover 1-Oct-18

    Thanks

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