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.

0 comments

165 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2019-02-08T04:23:12+00:00

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

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. 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.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2019-02-05T09:12:44+00:00

    Hi LarryLACa,

    Finally a real workaround that doesn't involve running scripts, deleting registry keys and changing cryptographic services.

    I have tested your fix this morning and rolled it out to a number of machines and so far so good!

    I can confirm that this works on static, mandatory and roaming profiles within a server 2016/Win 10 1809  active directory environment. 

    Thank you so much for your input. A simple fix via GPO applied is all it took.

    If your ever in Birmingham, UK give us a shout I owe you a couple of cold jars.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2019-02-04T17:44:42+00:00

    Unfortunately if you have more than one user the solution will have to be held in each of the users independently. The Criptsvc error also affects Windows Update itself, preventing it from connecting to Microsoft servers. But the fact is that by performing the following procedure the problem is solved.

    1. Open Run and type in regedit
    2. Go here: HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ SystemCertificates \ Root \
    3. Right-click ProtectedRoots> Permissions and pick your account. Tick ​​Allow Full Control
    4. Right-click Root and Export
    5. Open Task Manager> Stop Cryptographic Service and Delete Root (HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ SystemCertificates ) key in Regedit.
    6. Restart your Windows.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2019-02-04T17:40:04+00:00

    Matthew - The problem is in the user hive, not in the Windows image itself. 

    There is a GPO option to dis-allow user level Certificate Authorities (CAs) that avoids the bad section in HKCU.  See Jason's 1/31 post here for details on

     dis- "Allow user trusted root CAs to be used to validate certificates" 

    Chrome Help Forum - DisAllow User Trusted CAs

    If you need more help, please reply to the Chrome Help Forum with details about your AD and what you've tried.

    If you have a Chrome Enterprise support, you can contact them.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments