Windows 10 ShellExperienceHost crashes

Question

I recently cloned my Windows 10 partition from HDD to SSD.

I cannot open the Start Menu, Notifications, or anything that uses ShellExperienceHost. This includes things like the Calculator app, Edge browser and the metro style right click menu when you right click on an app in the taskbar.

Every time I try to open one of these, I get an error in the event log:

Faulting application name: ShellExperienceHost.exe, version: 10.0.10240.16515, time stamp: 0x55fa599a
Faulting module name: Windows.UI.Xaml.dll, version: 10.0.10240.16548, time stamp: 0x56133a14
Exception code: 0xc0000409
Fault offset: 0x0000000000533ad2
Faulting process id: 0x39ac
Faulting application start time: 0x01d18ad380a6bb12
Faulting application path: C:\Windows\SystemApps\ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\ShellExperienceHost.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\System32\Windows.UI.Xaml.dll
Report Id: 61c0dd6c-b61f-42e5-9130-ecfa1fa87cac
Faulting package full name: 
Faulting package-relative application ID: 

If I open ShellExperienceHost.exe using WinDbg, I get the following output:

CommandLine: C:\Windows\SystemApps\ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\ShellExperienceHost.exe

************* Symbol Path validation summary **************
Response                         Time (ms)     Location
Deferred                                       srv*c:\symbols*https://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
Symbol search path is: srv*c:\symbols*https://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
Executable search path is: 
ModLoad: 00007ff7`70830000 00007ff7`70a03000   ShellExperienceHost.exe
ModLoad: 00007ff9`b66f0000 00007ff9`b68b2000   ntdll.dll
ModLoad: 00007ff9`b4800000 00007ff9`b48ad000   C:\Windows\system32\KERNEL32.DLL
ModLoad: 00007ff9`b3bc0000 00007ff9`b3d9d000   C:\Windows\system32\KERNELBASE.dll
ModLoad: 00007ff9`b44b0000 00007ff9`b472c000   C:\Windows\system32\combase.dll
ModLoad: 00007ff9`b48b0000 00007ff9`b494d000   C:\Windows\system32\msvcrt.dll
ModLoad: 00007ff9`b4370000 00007ff9`b4496000   C:\Windows\system32\RPCRT4.dll
ModLoad: 00007ff9`b4220000 00007ff9`b4361000   C:\Windows\system32\ole32.dll
ModLoad: 00007ff9`b3f90000 00007ff9`b3feb000   C:\Windows\system32\sechost.dll
ModLoad: 00007ff9`93300000 00007ff9`9336a000   C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\wincorlib.DLL
ModLoad: 00007ff9`b6330000 00007ff9`b63ee000   C:\Windows\system32\OLEAUT32.dll
ModLoad: 00007ff9`b61a0000 00007ff9`b6326000   C:\Windows\system32\GDI32.dll
ModLoad: 00007ff9`b3ff0000 00007ff9`b413e000   C:\Windows\system32\USER32.dll
(4910.46c8): Break instruction exception - code 80000003 (first chance)
ntdll!LdrpDoDebuggerBreak+0x30:
00007ff9`b67ae510 cc              int     3
0:000> gn
ModLoad: 00007ff9`b4730000 00007ff9`b4766000   C:\Windows\system32\IMM32.DLL
ModLoad: 00007ff9`b4b10000 00007ff9`b4c6c000   C:\Windows\system32\MSCTF.dll
ModLoad: 00007ff9`b2ff0000 00007ff9`b3021000   C:\Windows\system32\nvinitx.dll
ModLoad: 00007ff9`b63f0000 00007ff9`b6496000   C:\Windows\system32\ADVAPI32.dll
ModLoad: 00007ff9`b2fe0000 00007ff9`b2fea000   C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\VERSION.dll
ModLoad: 00007ff9`b3170000 00007ff9`b317f000   C:\Windows\system32\kernel.appcore.dll
ModLoad: 00007ff9`b2ed0000 00007ff9`b2f3b000   C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\bcryptPrimitives.dll
ModLoad: 00007ff9`b6570000 00007ff9`b6615000   C:\Windows\system32\clbcatq.dll
ModLoad: 00007ff9`75130000 00007ff9`76126000   C:\Windows\System32\Windows.UI.Xaml.dll
ModLoad: 00007ff9`aeaa0000 00007ff9`aebd1000   C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\wintypes.dll
ModLoad: 00007ff9`b0b30000 00007ff9`b0bf8000   C:\Windows\System32\CoreMessaging.dll
ModLoad: 00007ff9`92ba0000 00007ff9`92c06000   C:\Windows\System32\Bcp47Langs.dll
ModLoad: 00007ff9`a8c10000 00007ff9`a8f86000   C:\Windows\System32\iertutil.dll
ModLoad: 00007ff9`b32a0000 00007ff9`b3353000   C:\Windows\system32\shcore.dll
ModLoad: 00007ff9`b0ad0000 00007ff9`b0b2c000   C:\Windows\System32\NInput.dll
windows\dxaml\xcp\dxaml\lib\frameworkapplication_partial.cpp(136)\Windows.UI.Xaml.dll!00007FF97563E864: (caller: 00007FF770885394) FailFast(1) tid(46c8) 8000FFFF Catastrophic failure
(4910.46c8): Security check failure or stack buffer overrun - code c0000409 (!!! second chance !!!)
Windows_UI_Xaml!wil::details::ReportFailure+0x1dee4a:
00007ff9`75663ad2 cd29            int     29h

I have already tried:

• Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

• Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

• Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

• Deleting %LOCALAPPDATA%\TileDataLayer\Database and rebooting

• Creating a new user

Short of refreshing Windows 10 and losing all my installed programs (I have a dev environment installed that would take a long time to replace), is there anything else I can try?

I am getting by with replacing the Windows Start Menu with Classic Shell, but it is quite annoying not being able to see the notifications area.

Answer 1

I've been struggling with this for days and went through hundreds of pages of solutions. Nothing worked, until I hit this page, where at page 22 user PaulSturm recommended to run a repair using Tweaking.com - Windows Repair Free/Pro.

I was obviously very suspicious of this, but quite a few people said it worked for them and I was willing to try anything after spending so much time with this, thanks to Microsoft's despicable support.

You will need to install it, start the application, restart in safe boot mode when it asks and then run the default selected repairs. No need for the pre-scan, sfc scan or anything outside the repairs section (other than the strongly recommended backup and system restore point). It took about 20 minutes for me but everything was back to normal after a restart following the repairs. I don't know exactly which fix did it, but it's the ONLY thing that worked for me.

Again, I don't expect you to trust me on this, but there are quite a few people on that Microsoft page that vouch for it. Make sure you're comfortable with using this and do make a backup and a system restore when asked.

Answer 2

Looking deeper at the problem, I was getting this error in the event log every time I clicked on the start menu

Faulting application name: ShellExperienceHost.exe, version: 10.0.10586.306, time stamp: 0x571afaa5
Faulting module name: Windows.UI.Xaml.dll, version: 10.0.10586.306, time stamp: 0x571af9f6

This event would appear after every time I clicked the Start Menu. I ran Process Monitor from SysInternals, clicked the Start Menu, and saw that ACCESS DENIED was showing for the User Accounts Package settings.dat for ShellExperienceHost. This file is located under:

%localappdata%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\Settings\

(localappdata is the environmental variable for C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\)

I deleted the settings.dat file, clicked on Start Button, and it still wouldn't open due to settings.dat being deleted. So I renamed Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy (the entire folder) to .old and reinstalled the ShellExperienceHost UI App using the following PowerShell Command from an elevated PowerShell Window:

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "C:\Windows\SystemApps\ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\AppXManifest.xml"}

This then reinstalled the Local Package for my user profile, putting settings.dat back in place. Now no more errors and start menu is now working.

Answer 3

After months of trying to fix this, I was finally able to by downloading a .img (like a .iso) file for Windows 10 for the exact build number that I had installed (Build 10240).

Once I had the right .img file, I was able to use it to do an in-place upgrade to the same version. Trying to do the same in-place upgrade to the latest version kept failing at 40% with error 0xC1900101-0x30018.

My start menu, notification center and Edge are all functional again.

Thanks to @magicandre1981 for all your help.

Answer 4

From the dump I can see that you get an Access denied error:

Stowed Exception Array @ 0x00000047c99904e0

Stowed Exception #1 @ 0x00000047c9999868
    0x80070005 (FACILITY_WIN32 - Win32 Undecorated Error Codes): E_ACCESSDENIED - General access denied error

    Stack    : 0x47c9998058
        7ffd96e11dd4 Windows_UI_Xaml!DirectUI::ActivationAPI::ActivateInstance+0x2cf304
        7ffd96c5a4c3 Windows_UI_Xaml!DirectUI::NavigationCache::LoadContent+0x6b
        7ffd96c5a045 Windows_UI_Xaml!DirectUI::NavigationCache::GetContent+0xa1
        7ffd96c5ab4f Windows_UI_Xaml!DirectUI::Frame::PerformNavigation+0xcf
        7ffd96c59e89 Windows_UI_Xaml!DirectUI::Frame::StartNavigation+0x29
        7ffd96c5aa24 Windows_UI_Xaml!DirectUI::Frame::NavigateImpl+0x15c
        7ffd96c5a889 Windows_UI_Xaml!DirectUI::FrameGenerated::Navigate+0x89
        7ffd96c58f4b Windows_UI_Xaml!DirectUI::Frame::NavigateImpl+0x4b
        7ffd96c58ec5 Windows_UI_Xaml!DirectUI::FrameGenerated::Navigate+0x75
        7ffd96c58ced Windows_UI_Xaml!DirectUI::Frame::NavigateImpl+0x41
        7ffd96c58c71 Windows_UI_Xaml!DirectUI::FrameGenerated::Navigate+0x71
        7ffd9677349d Windows_UI_ActionCenter!ActionCenter::App::StaticInitialize+0x55d
        7ffd96772dd3 Windows_UI_ActionCenter!ActionCenter::App::StaticOnLaunched+0x3f
        7ffd96772d7b Windows_UI_ActionCenter!?Invoke@?$__abi_FunctorCapture@V<lambda_237858d95a404202aa0a218454e40d6e>@@X$$$V@Details@Platform@@UEAAXXZ+0x4b
        7ffd967712e9 Windows_UI_ActionCenter!?__abi_Windows_UI_Core_DispatchedHandler___abi_IDelegate____abi_Invoke@?Q__abi_IDelegate@DispatchedHandler@Core@UI@Windows@@2345@UE$AAAJXZ+0x2d
        7ffdaaab3e6c Windows_UI!Windows::UI::Core::CDispatcher::ProcessInvokeItem+0x23c
        7ffdaaab5a54 Windows_UI!Windows::UI::Core::CDispatcher::ProcessMessage+0x1a4
        7ffdaaab57c2 Windows_UI!Windows::UI::Core::CDispatcher::WaitAndProcessMessages+0x1a2
        7ffdaaab5598 Windows_UI!Windows::UI::Core::CDispatcher::ProcessEvents+0xa8
        7ffd96d403bd Windows_UI_Xaml!CJupiterWindow::RunCoreWindowMessageLoop+0x65
        7ffd96d40343 Windows_UI_Xaml!DirectUI::DXamlCore::RunMessageLoop+0x47
        7ffdc64ba306 twinapi_appcore!Windows::ApplicationModel::Core::CoreApplicationView::Run+0x46
        7ffdc64d6490 twinapi_appcore!Microsoft::WRL::Details::MakeAndInitialize<Windows::ApplicationModel::Core::CoreApplicationViewAgileContainer,Windows::ApplicationModel::Core::CoreApplicationViewAgileContainer,enum Windows::ApplicationModel::Core::CoreApplicationViewAgileContainer::WindowType,Windows::ApplicationModel::Core::IFrameworkViewSource * __ptr64 & __ptr64,HSTRING__ * __ptr64>+0x1a4
        7ffdc7cb80c0 SHCore!CSimpleHashTable<unsigned long,Microsoft::WRL::ComPtr<CStreamWriterTimeoutManager::CTimerIdAndWriters>,CDefaultHashPolicy<unsigned long>,CDefaultKeyCompare<unsigned long>,CDefaultResizePolicy,CDefaultRehashPolicy>::RemoveAll+0x128
        7ffdc9582d92 kernel32!BaseThreadInitThunk+0x22
        7ffdcb119f64 ntdll!RtlUserThreadStart+0x34

To see which file/registry key can't be accessed, run ProcessMonitor, filter for ShellExperienceHost.exe and look in the Result column which operation fails with an Access denied error.

Also try to run this update which repairs the ACL which also can cause the errors.