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Hi, I've been having an issue with Windows Update KB4579311. When it gets installed it causes the Explorer to crash repeatedly until it eventually logs me in, at which point I can use it as normal. BUT, the crashing increases time it takes to log in and load everything up. It's very annoying.
What I mean by crash is that the start bar flickers on and off, over and over and over. The desktop is black the mouse curser is visible. when you press ctrl alt del that screen stops flickering, when you return back to the desktop, flicker ahoy! you can see in the task manager that the explorer is stopping and starting over and over. You cant manually end the process becuase it's starting and stopping so fast that by the time you click the end process button it's already restarted and the instance of the explorer you tried to end no longer exists.
Uninstalling KB4579311 stops the issue but when it installs it's self again the issue returns.
I'm getting tired of repeating the same steps over and over to use my computer as intended.
This is shown in the event viewer:
Faulting application name: explorer.exe, version: 10.0.19041.546, time stamp: 0x89ce2e55
Faulting module name: ucrtbase.dll, version: 10.0.19041.546, time stamp: 0x43cbc11d
Exception code: 0xc0000409
Fault offset: 0x000000000007287e
Faulting process ID: 0x21e8
Faulting application start time: 0x01d6a45d9c54ed23
Faulting application path: C:\Windows\explorer.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\System32\ucrtbase.dll
Report ID: 0fa45953-9e3f-4a5f-bafc-ee4c5229c9ca
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:
What I'm looking for is a fix. Not a workaround.
Thanks
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.
I would add that this only happens on the first login after start/restart. After about 6 minutes it proceeds to load as normal and I am able to logoff and back on any number of times without seeing this same fault. Only the first login after a reboot triggers this. Anyone else confirm this? Waiting on the fix.
I also had this issue and although uninstalling KB4579311 worked I found that disabling the "Storage Service" service also stopped explorer from repeatedly crashing after logging in (I forgot where I found this suggestion, but thanks to that person). Not a complete fix, but it might help if you'd like to not keep pausing updates.
Instructions:
I also had this issue and although uninstalling KB4579311 worked I found that disabling the "Storage Service" service also stopped explorer from repeatedly crashing after logging in (I forgot where I found this suggestion, but thanks to that person). Not a complete fix, but it might help if you'd like to not keep pausing updates.
Instructions:
- Open services.msc. With explorer repeatedly crashing you might have to do this by opening Task Manager from Ctrl+Alt+Del, clicking the Services tab, right clicking one of the items and click Open Services.
- Alternatively, I did it by rebooting into Safe Mode. Ctrl+Alt+Del, press the power icon, hold Shift and click restart. Then click Troubleshoot > Advanced Settings >Startup Options. Once you've rebooted into Safe Mode, you can press Start and type "services".
- Scroll to "Storage Service" and right click > Properties.
- In Startup Type select Disabled. I tried Manual but Windows started the service at startup anyway.
@Frestlay thanks for the suggestion on disabling Storage Service via services console - this does appear to prevent the problem on my machine from occurring at every restart. Are there any known issues with keeping this disabled?
I would ideally like to uninstall the KB but as others have found, it appears to be "baked in" to the OS and impossible to remove. I am starting to wonder if I shouldn't just do a clean install, but I'd really like to avoid the hassle!
@Frestlay thanks for the suggestion on disabling Storage Service via services console - this does appear to prevent the problem on my machine from occurring at every restart. Are there any known issues with keeping this disabled?
I would ideally like to uninstall the KB but as others have found, it appears to be "baked in" to the OS and impossible to remove. I am starting to wonder if I shouldn't just do a clean install, but I'd really like to avoid the hassle!
Main issue I've found is that disabling Storage Service will prevent updates to Microsoft Store apps. I'd still consider disabling this service a workaround until Microsoft can fix this issue.
For help uninstalling the update:
TL;DR Hold and keep holding the "shift" key and select restart. On the following screen select *Troubleshoot > Advanced Options>Uninstall Updates>Uninstall latest quality update.*This will revert the problem update and return your computer back to normal behavior.
Not sure if anyone mentioned this yet but if so then apologies for the duplication. For those that do encounter this issue, the easiest way I found to revert the update is to hold and keep holding the "shift" key while selecting restart. This will bring up a set of options, if you then select Troubleshoot > Advanced Options and choose Uninstall Updatesthen you'll be presented with two more options. In this case, I keep using the "Uninstall latest quality update" option which is fairly quick and gets your computer back to its normal behavior before the update. I then pause all updates to prevent the update from being applied again until a fix is released. Hope this helps someone.
