Programs, software and apps keep crashing after 2021 updates Windows 10

Hi Admn86 -

I'm Jerico T., one of the Independent Advisor and a fellow Windows 10 user like you. I understand that you're having some issues right now, let us sort things out.

Please try the troubleshooting methods below and check if any of the resolves fixes the issue.

Method 1: Create a new user profile

• We will try to create new user profile to check if the issue happens on all windows users on your computer or just isolated on the current profile that you're using.

1. Open the command prompt with elevated access (Administrator Access)
2. Type the below command and hit enter every after command.

net user "account name" /add

(change the "account name" to any name that you preferred)

net localgroup administrators "account name" /add

(change the "account name" with the name that you put in the first command)

3. Close the command prompt and switch to the new user.

Check if the same issue occurs on the new user profile.

Method 2: Perform Clean Boot

• This process will eliminate 3rd party application running in the background of your computer along with services that are not needed to run windows. If there's any conflicting 3rd party application that causes the issue on your computer, this process will stop it.

1. Open the run box by pressing the Windows Key + R and type msconfig
2. System Configuration Utility box will open and by default you are on general tab.
3. On the General tab, click the selective startup and make sure that load system service and load startup items both have checked mark.
4. Click on services tab
5. Put a check mark on Hide All Microsoft Services > This is a very important part as if you miss to click on this, computer might not boot properly or permanently and will end up on clean installation.
6. Once Hide all Microsoft Services have checked mark on it, click on Disable All
7. Click on the Startup Tab and click open task manager. This will open another window which contains all your startup applications on the administrator account.
8. Disable all application that you're not using. You can simply just click on them and select disable.
9. Click OK , Apply and close the configuration utility.
10. Restart your computer and check if the issue still persist.

Method 3: System Restore

• System restore is where it will take your computer settings back to an earlier point in time where everything is working fine.

1. Open the run box by pressing Windows Key + R and type rstrui.exe then press enter.
2. System restore windows will open. Normally it will suggest a restore point(Sometimes it doesn't), if it does, select the 2nd option to select more restore points.
3. Select your desired restore point date and time.
4. Once selected, hit next and finish.

Windows will restart itself to start system restore. System restore might take some time to complete and it is very important that system restore must not be interrupted during restore process as it might damaged the operating system. System restore will take at least 20 minutes or more depending on the content of the computer and the changes on the settings that was done prior to the date selected. System restore will also removed application , updates and drivers installed prior to the date selected.

DISCLAIMER:

System Restore is a recovery tool for Windows that allows you to reverse certain kinds of changes made to the operating system. System Restore is used to return important Windows files and settings—like drivers, registry keys, system files, installed programs, and more—back to previous versions and settings. Being said all applications and changes made prior to the date selected will be removed and needs to be re-installed if its needed.

If the methods above did not work, please don't hesitate to reach back.

Hope this help. Have a good day.

Thank you.

Jerico T.

Independent Advisor

Hi Jerico,

First of all many thanks for your quick reply.

* Method 1 - tried this following your instructions, however same issues still happen, re-updated both my laptop and desktop to the most up to date Windows definitions and problem starts again. So unfortunately this doesn't fix the problem and proves it happens accross other accounts.

* Method 2 - can't run msconfig. Like it happens with services.msc and regedit.exe, it shuts crashing straight after opening them;

* Method 3 - system restore i know is the last resort, but really want to stay away from this for now.

Thank you very much for your input, it's much appreciated.

Best regards,

AM

UPDATE:

Been trying trial and error manually unistalling updates one by one and at the moment both laptop and desktop are working, however i found that KB4601319 on my desktop in February was the one causing problems and always crashing most of programs/applets/software with an error message "program stopped working" and only option is to close program.

When updating again through the Windows Update tool to the most up to date settings i have the same crash now in March with KB5000802. 

This KB makes the same behaviour on my desktop and on my laptop the programs/applets/software just close after opening without any error message or report.

March 2021 KB5000802 brings the OS version to Windows 10 Version 20H2 (OS Build 19042.867) - this creates the problems described on both my laptop and desktop. Same update, same OS version.

With manually unistalling updates subsequential i am at the moment with both laptop and desktop working on the following OS version:

Windows 10 Version 20H2 (OS Build 19042.746) - and everything works fine.

With this said i would like to hear from someone from Microsoft on this and would be great to know whether more users have reported the same or similar issues with these KBs.

Many thanks and best regards,

Andre Monteiro

Hi Admn86 -

Thank you for the detailed response and I apologize that the given methods did not work. If that's the case, please perform In-place Repair.

In-Place Repair

• In-place repair/upgrade or repair reinstall is a process of re-installing Windows without touching any of your applications or personal files. In this way if there's any data corruption, damaged system files or missing system files on your computer, this repair will fix or repair them.

To start we need to download an ISO file of Windows 10 and save it to your computer. Please follow the instruction on the link below to create an ISO file

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/402819...

After the ISO is created, follow the instructions on the link below created by PaulSey, Microsoft Agent, on how to perform repair install on your computer.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...

This process will take some time to complete so you need to be very patient in waiting until the process completes. Once done , restart your computer and check if the issue is resolved.

Regards,

Jerico T.

So this sounds very much like the problems I have been having following the March 2021 Windows update. Things have been getting steadily worse until this morning when my computer was virtually unusable because of frequent lockups, unable to save work (in Ms NotePad) and unable to open file explorer!

SUSPECTED CAUSE:  It looks like the March 2021 update (and to some extend the earlier one) did something to the way in which Windows handles failed or missing network shares, cached network locations and/or mapped drives.

On my network I have a WIFI attached printer (Epson WF-7520) which has been sitting there doing its thing since 2013. This printer shares a Samba folder (Linux based Windows network share) on the network where it puts anything that has been scanned. I have (had) mapped that folder so it appears as a Network Drive on my local system. This has been stable since 2013 (originally on a Windows 7 pc). At some point since the beginning of this year the shared folder must have stopped working (Cause unknown - The printer and scanner has been printing and scanning fine including this morning) 

MY FIX: I unmapped the printer share and cleared the 'quick access cache' in 'folder settings' and restarted my computer. This improved things but only after I power-cycled the printer (restoring its network share) did the file explorer issues resolve on my PC. I also restarted my PC after the printer power-cycle for the thousandth time. Just for good measure! 

It would seem now that having mapped network drives/shares connected to a defunct network share but where the target is on or has an IP address on the local network causes my local computer to freeze for long periods of time when opening explorer even if I am not trying to access the share. The problems do not seem to happen if the target computer is powered off or if the network address does not point to a computer.

So far since restarting the Network printer was restarted I have not had any issues with the random app crashes. I can once again use notepad et al for more than 5 minutes!.  

I hope this helps you or someone else. I just lost a whole day of work/income and a good chunk of my sanity before I figured out what the problem was!