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Recently I've started experiencing a very bad OS behavior:

Something is messed up with the windows' queue managing or communication, here is what I'm experiencing:

  • opening a link to a folder -> nothing happens for a few minutes -> than error appears: explorer.exe: "Server execution failed".

    Sometimes it happens just out of the blue, on the first attempt to open a shortcut, other times it fails on the multiple request (1st window ok, 2nd ok, 3rd - errors again). It seems that complex links are more likely to cause this (like: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe ,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D})

  • Opening some task that require "secure display" (like the UAC one) for entering password or something, results in a "fatal .Net error", with white screen and a red X behind the error message. Confirming it hangs the UI, and stays stuck on a empty desktop

  • Trying to run something that require windows installer will result in an error: "Error 1719. Windows Installer service could not be accessed."

  • Opening a word document will result in a following errors: "this document could not be registered..." (several times for one doc); "Visual Basic Environment could not be initialized" (once per doc).

  • In services.msc, select DCOM Server Process Launcher, open its Properties->Dependencies results in an unresponsive, frozen window.

  • Running "Process Explorer" results in a crush (it creates crush dumps, but I don't know how to analyze them properly)

  • Many other stuff that require Registry/Windows Services access will fail to operate

It's hard to say what causing this, but once one of the issues above appeared, all other are triggered as well. Sometimes it just goes into the f_cked up state right on, sometimes (usually) after a stress of the explorer.exe requests. Attemtping to Restart the PC, and then terminating the restart routine (during a "waitnig to close programs" screen) usually recovers the issue.

Then I tried to differentiate the active process list (using Process Hacker) generated once when the issue is on, and once after the "recovered" state during restart thing. And later try to "fix" the problemous state terminating the diff. processes manually. The only thing that seemed to actually have an effect is restarting the "WmiPrvSE.exe" process.

Then, I looked at some "WMI" recovery suggestions here: The Repair List for WMI problems. I tried to rebuild windows system files (sfc /scannow); re-enable/refresh/resync/reload performance counters; rebuild wbem repository. But all are ineffective.

This PC is a year old Lenovo ThinkPad laptop (i7, 16GB), running Windows 7 Ultimate x64. It's pretty loaded with SW, but usually performs very well during stress and very heavy multitasking. I can't pinpoint any specific SW change that initiated this behavior (but no major changes has been done in general).

It seems to very much like some SW conflict messes up the internal windows task queue. But I need to figure out a way to be able to pinpoint it more specifically.

Any advice is highly welcomed! Thanks in advance!!!

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Seems like I've found the trigger for this issue. Turns out, that the problem is somehow caused/related to an intensive multithreading handling:

I usually work on several projects in parallel, have few virtual screens, multiple internet browser (chromium-based) windows, and many tabs open. What I've noticed, is that problem's occurance is related to the number of tabs being lauched during the browser's startup.

Once I start the browser with a session (restored at startup) of more than 25-30 tabs, the problem kicks in, and stays there for a long long time. Causing all the issues mentioned, untill the system is restarted.

However, if I gradualy, manually one by one, increase the open tab count in the browser, no issues arise (I tested it up to 100 tabs with no visible issues).

So since every tab in chromium-based browsers runs in a separate process, I think, Windows is having some trouble handling all these requests. Its just my guess, however, but at least there is some clue to what is going on. And for the time being, I'll try to avoid having 20+ tabs before terminating browser's session to prevent the aggressive startup for the next one.

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