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PaulAllan-0163 avatar image
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PaulAllan-0163 asked Thomas-9322 commented

Windows 2019 RDS Servers Start Menu Stopped Working

We are also running a 2019 RDS Farm and we have had this exact same issue with the Start Menu not working this week. Initially it was on one host, and now it is happening on two hosts! We ran the command on one host and it has fixed it. We have not ran it on the second host yet, as we had to stop it taking connections as it was causing so many issues for users.

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

Does MS know why this is happening? Has a Jan update caused this issue? It is very worrying since most of our staff are currently WFH and are relying on the RDS servers to be able to work effectively.

Many Thanks
Paul.

windows-serverremote-desktop-serviceswindows-server-2019
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And it is broken again already after about 30 mins. Seeing these errors logged:
Unable to start a DCOM Server: Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_10.0.17763.1_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy!App as Unavailable/Unavailable. The error:
"0"
Happened while starting this command:
"C:\Windows\SystemApps\ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\ShellExperienceHost.exe" -ServerName:App.AppXtk181tbxbce2qsex02s8tw7hfxa9xb3t.mca

Unable to start a DCOM Server: Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_1.11.6.17763_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy!CortanaUI as Unavailable/Unavailable. The error:
"0"
Happened while starting this command:
"C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\SearchUI.exe" -ServerName:CortanaUI.AppXa50dqqa5gqv4a428c9y1jjw7m3btvepj.mca

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I've been troubleshooting similiar issues and I found this post that windows search is corrupting the user edb on server 2019 because the edb is moved to the appdata\roaming folder which is abruptly removed while the indexer is still accessing it. Maybe this is causing your issues too. Their solution was to create a scheduled task to restart the Windows search service on a user logout event ID.

https://jkindon.com/2020/03/15/windows-search-in-server-2019-and-multi-session-windows-10/

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Thank you for posting this. Your reinstall the appx manifest fix did the trick for us. We were struggling with this one and were close to reverting to an earlier snapshot of the server. You saved us a lot of hassle. For what it's worth, our windows search is actually disabled on the affected server, so I don't think that was the cause in our case.

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KarlieWeng-MSFT avatar image
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KarlieWeng-MSFT answered Thomas-9322 commented

HI

How about adding the following commands to the users login script:
Add-AppxPackage -Register "C:\Windows\SystemApps\ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\AppxManifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode
Add-AppxPackage -Register "C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\AppxManifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode

Thanks
Karlie

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Hi,

We have not heard from you for several days, any update?

Thanks
Karlie

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Hi @PaulAllan-0163

Have you checked if below answers help?
If they are helpful, please do not forget to accept the answers.

Thanks

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I just wanted to say that this solved the issue in my case, for now.

I'm guessing I have to make a loginscript that runs it.

Disappointing that it's nessesary. Three new Server 2022 RDS.

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jlch avatar image
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jlch answered

Hi,
Same issue. I tested custom start menu (.xml file). It works fine when first log on server. Next times, no more start menu.

As workaround, I see that:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/abb99ec6-0996-4e0e-a7eb-d76c255edb58/user-profile-disks-2016-and-start-menu?forum=winserverTS

It permits to restore some access, but:
- tiles are missing
- I'm not sure that "customized" start menu deployed with GPO is effective

I openend a Ms support case...

Regards

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RandyWeiss-3377 avatar image
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RandyWeiss-3377 answered

I've been troubleshooting similiar issues and I found this post that windows search is corrupting the user edb on server 2019 because the edb is moved to the appdata\roaming folder which is abruptly removed while the indexer is still accessing it. Maybe this is causing your issues too. Their solution was to create a scheduled task to restart the Windows search service on a user logout event ID.

https://jkindon.com/2020/03/15/windows-search-in-server-2019-and-multi-session-windows-10/

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