Tag Archives: services

SOLUTION: Black screen on boot with mouse cursor, Windows 10 Fall Creators Update [Build 1709]

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Recently, I’ve seen more and more machines (still a small amount, but an increasing number seemingly) with a problem upon boot following some recent updates to the Windows 10 Build 1709 subsystem.  Specifically, these machines hang on boot at a black screen following the Welcome/login screen with only the mouse cursor present for anywhere from a few to several minutes.  Task Manager can be invoked and CTRL+ALT+DEL still works, but the machine will not operate normally with the usual Windows shell interface (explorer.exe GUI etc.) until the process sees itself through to fruition.  This happens at each and every boot.

Microsoft has indeed acknowledged this issue, blaming it on some rogue registry keys supposedly put in place by some OEMs which are incompatible with the latest builds of Windows 10.  However, I’ve come to doubt that explanation, as the fix they provide in the relevant KB article has not yet once worked on any of my clients’ machines, and another, more foolproof fix has instead corrected the problem.

This is the service which causes all of these headaches.

This is the service which causes all of these headaches.

A while back, people discovered that the singular service responsible for this behavior is the App Readiness service, which prepares user data the first time a user logs on following the installation or update of a Windows Store app.  Disabling this service does correct the problem.  If you experience this exact behavior, I have what is likely a permanent fix for you however, and best of all, it’s easy.

First, determine if this particular problem applies to your machine. Lots of things can lead to hangs during the boot process, so before you proceed further, it’s a good idea to ensure that the App Readiness hang is actually what is afflicting you:

  1. Boot the machine normally.
  2. During the hang at the black screen, press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC to bring up Task Manager.
  3. Choose File > Run New Task.
  4. Type msconfig and press ENTER.
  5. Click the Services tab, uncheck App Readiness, and click OK.
  6. Either wait out the rest of the boot procedure and then reboot your PC, or force a reboot by returning to Task Manger and running this task: shutdown -r -t 0
  7. Upon reboot, if the problem disappears, this is indeed your issue.
  8. If the problem is solved, next reverse the procedure by rerunning msconfig and rechecking the box next to App Readiness.  Reboot again and allow the slow boot procedure to complete.

The reason you need to reenable App Readiness is that without it, the next steps will fail.

You can also disable the service via the standard services.msc snap-in interface if you prefer that.

You can also disable the service via the standard services.msc snap-in interface if you prefer that.

Once the diagnosis is complete, the next step is easy.

  1. Obtain Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (Build 1709) or later installation media directly from Microsoft’s software download website (update May 2018: the latest build is now 1803, the April Update). Try using the “Download Tool Now” button method and creating an installation DVD first, as this procedure is more likely to succeed.
  2. Once you have created the DVD, run the setup process from the DVD and choose to upgrade Windows while retaining all apps and user data.  This process is called an in-place upgrade as has been available for many years now within Windows (barring a short hiatus).
    1. If a DVD drive is not available, you can simply mount the resulting ISO file and install it from the virtually mounted ISO.
    2. If both of these methods fail, you can try using the Windows 10 Update Assistant tool from that same webpage instead.
  3. See the installation through to completion.
  4. Once finished, reboot and see if the problem is fixed.  It should be!

I hope this helps restore sanity to someone’s computing life.

Solution: Services.msc blank

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This particular issue is one which most seasoned techs have dealt with time and time again.  Most of the time, it’s simply the Extended tab which is blank, showing nothing but a strange fractured blue border.  In this case, the traditional solution is actually quite easy:

  • On XP:
    • Start > Run > type cmd and press ENTER
  • On Vista/7:
    • Start > in the Start Search box, type cmd, then right-click Command Prompt and choose Run As Administrator
  • At the Command Prompt window which appears, type regsvr32.exe jscript.dll
  • Still at the Command Prompt, type regsvr32.exe vbscript.dll
  • Reboot. 

That fixes the problem most of the time.  But recently, I encountered an entirely different cause for the problem.

Cutting straight to the chase, a damaged IE9 installation can also be to blame.  Many of the same files involved in IE’s operation are also used to display the contents of this particular MMC snap-in.  The solution normally is to simply repair (uninstall, reinstall) IE9.  Be sure to check your progress after each step to ensure your actions don’t accidentally resurrect the problem however; on yet another machine where I ran into this recently, even reinstalling IE9 caused the problem to recur.

Technically speaking, for security reasons alone, it’s always a good idea to have the latest version of IE installed, because it’s a pretty deeply-seated Windows component (whether or not you actually use Internet Explorer as your browser).  In some rare cases, however, troubleshooting this sort of thing can become too cumbersome to warrant the time involved.  In my case, I eventually simply left IE8 installed, performed all available patches, and then blocked access to the app via the Default Programs dialog.  Not perfect, but problem solved nonetheless!