My remote friend's Windows 10-64 machine has developed a very odd fault:
no browsers will open!

What's more puzzling is that the internet connection is solid; I've been
using TeamViewer on it for the last several hours, and that's been
working fine.

The symptoms:
Chrome: however I (try to!) start it (pinned button on task bar, desktop
shortcut, I think also start menu): a little twitch of the activity
indicator, then it dumps me back at the desktop. No error message or
anything.
Internet Explorer: A mostly white window opens. Nothing else happens.
Edge: A little error box comes up, saying something about "side-by-side
configuration error", and saying I might look at log files using
something like sxs???.exe . (I tried typing that on its own in a
command window, but it obviously needs parameters. I tried giving it /?,
but don't understand what comes up.)

RaisaRadio (I think that's the name) - not a browser, a utility that
handles streaming radio stations: crashes out with an error box
mentioning some .dll file; when I check, that file is present. This may
or may not have anything to do with the browser fault; just seems odd it
has happened about the same time. She used it to set up a scheduled
recording yesterday afternoon, and that happened - though I don't know
if that uses different parts of that software to the UI.

BrailleMaker - not a browser, a utility that converts text files (or
Word documents - it works as an add-in to Word) into Braille. Every time
you use it, it calls home to make sure it's still authorised. (It's old
software, but we _have_ had it working fine under 10.) Now, when you try
to load a file into it or call it from Word, it just closes - back to
the desktop or Word; no error message or anything. (Earlier, before we'd
got the permissions sorted out [by communicating with the company that
looks after them], it came up with an error box saying "this software
has been installed too many times" or similar. This time, nothing.)
Again, may not be related, but as it seems to have happened at the same
time - and the just closing with no error message behaviour, same as
Chrome - makes me think it might be related.

Googling side-by-side configuration error, suggests it's related to
trying to install or update certain software, especially that using C++
runtimes. AFAIK Julia has not tried to install anything new lately (I
did ask her) - though of course Windows updates happen all the time.

I found other suggestions - one that looked complicated involving the
registry: I did look at it, but her registry didn't have the "folders"
where it said, so I left well alone. Others suggested an sfc /scannow
from an administrator prompt; I tried this and it said it couldn't, then
I found another one that said do a lot of net stop commands before the
sfc (including repeating them as the services in question might have
restarted) and then net start afterwards. I think I did get sfc to run
eventually, but it didn't solve the problem.

We've left it overnight in the (probably forlorn) hope that Windows
Updates might do something; if not, we're going to do an image restore
(fortunately last time I visited them I set up Macrium to make one once
a week, and it has, so we have one from Wednesday), and _hope_ that will
work. (Not looking forward to it - booting from the Macrium CD, then
guiding a blind person to use the interface, while viewing the screen
through Skype on her iPhone. Have done it before [when the HD on her 7
machine died], and at least this time the image is on an internal drive,
and there's a trackball rather than a mouse.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

You'll need to have this fish in your ear. (First series, fit the first.)

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
> My remote friend's Windows 10-64 machine has developed a very odd fault:
> no browsers will open!
>
> What's more puzzling is that the internet connection is solid; I've been
> using TeamViewer on it for the last several hours, and that's been
> working fine.
>
> The symptoms:
> Chrome: however I (try to!) start it (pinned button on task bar, desktop
> shortcut, I think also start menu): a little twitch of the activity
> indicator, then it dumps me back at the desktop. No error message or
> anything.
> Internet Explorer: A mostly white window opens. Nothing else happens.
> Edge: A little error box comes up, saying something about "side-by-side
> configuration error", and saying I might look at log files using
> something like sxs???.exe . (I tried typing that on its own in a
> command window, but it obviously needs parameters. I tried giving it /?,
> but don't understand what comes up.)
>
> RaisaRadio (I think that's the name) - not a browser, a utility that
> handles streaming radio stations: crashes out with an error box
> mentioning some .dll file; when I check, that file is present. This may
> or may not have anything to do with the browser fault; just seems odd it
> has happened about the same time. She used it to set up a scheduled
> recording yesterday afternoon, and that happened - though I don't know
> if that uses different parts of that software to the UI.
>
> BrailleMaker - not a browser, a utility that converts text files (or
> Word documents - it works as an add-in to Word) into Braille. Every time
> you use it, it calls home to make sure it's still authorised. (It's old
> software, but we _have_ had it working fine under 10.) Now, when you try
> to load a file into it or call it from Word, it just closes - back to
> the desktop or Word; no error message or anything. (Earlier, before we'd
> got the permissions sorted out [by communicating with the company that
> looks after them], it came up with an error box saying "this software
> has been installed too many times" or similar. This time, nothing.)
> Again, may not be related, but as it seems to have happened at the same
> time - and the just closing with no error message behaviour, same as
> Chrome - makes me think it might be related.
>
> Googling side-by-side configuration error, suggests it's related to
> trying to install or update certain software, especially that using C++
> runtimes. AFAIK Julia has not tried to install anything new lately (I
> did ask her) - though of course Windows updates happen all the time.
>
> I found other suggestions - one that looked complicated involving the
> registry: I did look at it, but her registry didn't have the "folders"
> where it said, so I left well alone. Others suggested an sfc /scannow
> from an administrator prompt; I tried this and it said it couldn't, then
> I found another one that said do a lot of net stop commands before the
> sfc (including repeating them as the services in question might have
> restarted) and then net start afterwards. I think I did get sfc to run
> eventually, but it didn't solve the problem.
>
>
> We've left it overnight in the (probably forlorn) hope that Windows
> Updates might do something; if not, we're going to do an image restore
> (fortunately last time I visited them I set up Macrium to make one once
> a week, and it has, so we have one from Wednesday), and _hope_ that will
> work. (Not looking forward to it - booting from the Macrium CD, then
> guiding a blind person to use the interface, while viewing the screen
> through Skype on her iPhone. Have done it before [when the HD on her 7
> machine died], and at least this time the image is on an internal drive,
> and there's a trackball rather than a mouse.)

perfmon /rel # Reliability report, with coloured dots for failures
# Click a coloured dot for details, such as they are.

If System Protection (System Restore) subsystem is enabled,
check the restore points the automation has collected. Such
as the last time an update was done, to get some idea
when this might have happened. It's probably a side effect
of Patch Tuesday (sept14?). There might not always be
a 1 for 1 match, between Windows History and automatic
System Restore operations, and checking SR is a means
of double checking. Especially if you deleted SoftwareUpdates
folder and the Windows History ended up cleared.

After you do your Macrium restore, have the machine check
Windows Update. If the problem is a Windows Update, and if
Julia uses the machine when you're not there and that Update
comes in again, the browsers could drop dead again. Depending
on what you figure out got patched in the last patch done.
You could click the "delay updates for a while" button,
and if there is a problem, hope the update gets reissued
at some point.

So much for SaaS. Imagine the subscription scheme had worked,
and you were paying money for this sort of abuse...

*******

And I hope the machine has been rebooted at least once,
to ensure any Windows Update half-installed-state issues
are resolved. Sometimes Updates disable a service and it
doesn't get enabled again until a reboot comes along.

*******

If a computer had two drives, and you could arrange
to boot the second drive, you could run a Macrium from
there and do the restore to the duff volume that way.
I suppose that's how I ended up with four drives on
this desktop (three have OSes)...

Paul

On Sun, 19 Sep 2021 at 19:33:48, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote (my
responses usually follow points raised):
>J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
>> My remote friend's Windows 10-64 machine has developed a very odd
>>fault: no browsers will open!
>> What's more puzzling is that the internet connection is solid; I've
>>been using TeamViewer on it for the last several hours, and that's
>>been working fine.
>> The symptoms:
>> Chrome: however I (try to!) start it (pinned button on task bar,
>>desktop shortcut, I think also start menu): a little twitch of the
>>activity indicator, then it dumps me back at the desktop. No error
>>message or anything.
>> Internet Explorer: A mostly white window opens. Nothing else happens.
>> Edge: A little error box comes up, saying something about
>>"side-by-side configuration error", and saying I might look at log
>>files using something like sxs???.exe . (I tried typing that on its
>>own in a command window, but it obviously needs parameters. I tried
>>giving it /?, but don't understand what comes up.)
>> RaisaRadio (I think that's the name) - not a browser, a utility that
>>handles streaming radio stations: crashes out with an error box
>>mentioning some .dll file; when I check, that file is present. This
>>may or may not have anything to do with the browser fault; just seems
>>odd it has happened about the same time. She used it to set up a
>>scheduled recording yesterday afternoon, and that happened - though I
>>don't know if that uses different parts of that software to the UI.
>> BrailleMaker - not a browser, a utility that converts text files (or
>>Word documents - it works as an add-in to Word) into Braille. Every
>>time you use it, it calls home to make sure it's still authorised.
>>(It's old software, but we _have_ had it working fine under 10.) Now,
>>when you try to load a file into it or call it from Word, it just
>>closes - back to the desktop or Word; no error message or anything.
>>(Earlier, before we'd got the permissions sorted out [by
>>communicating with the company that looks after them], it came up
>>with an error box saying "this software has been installed too many
>>times" or similar. This time, nothing.) Again, may not be related,
>>but as it seems to have happened at the same time - and the just
>>closing with no error message behaviour, same as Chrome - makes me
>>think it might be related.
>> Googling side-by-side configuration error, suggests it's related to
>>trying to install or update certain software, especially that using
>>C++ runtimes. AFAIK Julia has not tried to install anything new
>>lately (I did ask her) - though of course Windows updates happen all
>>the time.
>> I found other suggestions - one that looked complicated involving
>>the registry: I did look at it, but her registry didn't have the
>>"folders" where it said, so I left well alone. Others suggested an
>>sfc /scannow from an administrator prompt; I tried this and it said
>>it couldn't, then I found another one that said do a lot of net stop
>>commands before the sfc (including repeating them as the services in
>>question might have restarted) and then net start afterwards. I think
>>I did get sfc to run eventually, but it didn't solve the problem.
>> We've left it overnight in the (probably forlorn) hope that Windows
>>Updates might do something; if not, we're going to do an image restore
>>(fortunately last time I visited them I set up Macrium to make one
>>once a week, and it has, so we have one from Wednesday), and _hope_
>>that will work. (Not looking forward to it - booting from the Macrium
>>CD, then guiding a blind person to use the interface, while viewing
>>the screen through Skype on her iPhone. Have done it before [when the
>>HD on her 7 machine died], and at least this time the image is on an
>>internal drive, and there's a trackball rather than a mouse.)
>
>perfmon /rel # Reliability report, with coloured dots for failures
> # Click a coloured dot for details, such as they are.
>
>If System Protection (System Restore) subsystem is enabled,
>check the restore points the automation has collected. Such
>as the last time an update was done, to get some idea
>when this might have happened. It's probably a side effect
>of Patch Tuesday (sept14?). There might not always be
>a 1 for 1 match, between Windows History and automatic
>System Restore operations, and checking SR is a means
>of double checking. Especially if you deleted SoftwareUpdates
>folder and the Windows History ended up cleared.

Needless to say, leaving it overnight (in the hope that an update might
come along that fixed it) didn't help. So we did the Macrium restore -
from a file created on the 15th, at 9.3x a. m. British summer time
(GMT+1, so created 8.3x GMT).

Browsers (At least, Chrome and IE - I don't think we tried Edge) now
work again, as does RaimaRadio (?). BrailleMaker still crashing out with
no error message, so that is a different problem.

(I suspect I wouldn't understand perfmon's details "such as they are".)
>
>After you do your Macrium restore, have the machine check
>Windows Update. If the problem is a Windows Update, and if
>Julia uses the machine when you're not there and that Update
>comes in again, the browsers could drop dead again. Depending
>on what you figure out got patched in the last patch done.

I'm sure I'll get another 'phone call if that happens!

>You could click the "delay updates for a while" button,
>and if there is a problem, hope the update gets reissued
>at some point.

I should have thought of that.
>
>So much for SaaS. Imagine the subscription scheme had worked,
>and you were paying money for this sort of abuse...

)-: (-:
>
>*******
>
>And I hope the machine has been rebooted at least once,
>to ensure any Windows Update half-installed-state issues
>are resolved. Sometimes Updates disable a service and it
>doesn't get enabled again until a reboot comes along.

No calls so far, and it's been about six hours, so I _hope_ it's OK: she
does tend to shut down the machine when not using it.
>
>*******
>
>If a computer had two drives, and you could arrange
>to boot the second drive, you could run a Macrium from
>there and do the restore to the duff volume that way.
>I suppose that's how I ended up with four drives on
>this desktop (three have OSes)...

Interesting idea; however, I think I'd still need to do it via Skype on
iPhone, unless Macrium can be made to boot with speech and/or
TeamViewer. Mined Ewe, it (Macrium 7) doesn't half take a long time to
boot from CD! I'm sure far longer than Macrium 5 takes to boot on my
much older machine - I guess its WinPE (?) is bigger. (The .iso is about
600M, rather than around 200M for M5.) But that's the least of our
problems. (I guess I could make a bootable USB. But I think it's
thinking time not reading time; the drive is, I think, a fairly
conventional modern one, and must read at at least 20×, so should read a
whole - 600M, anyway - CD in less than a couple of minutes, and I think
it took a lot longer than that. So having it on a USB - or another drive
- I don't think would have changed the boot time much.)
>
> Paul
John

(George and Ringo are away)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Anything you add for security will slow the computer but it shouldn't be
significant or prolonged. Security software is to protect the computer, not
the primary use of the computer.
- VanguardLH in alt.windows7.general, 2018-1-28