Month: January 2022

Minecraft Launcher App Not Working in Windows 10/11

I recently built a new computer and wanted to install the Minecraft launcher. I went directly to the downloads section of Minecraft.net and grabbed the installer for Windows 10/11. Easy peasy, I thought to myself. At first the installer ran, but soon it became apparent that process froze.

The progress bar never moved from this spot

I closed the installer since it had not moved for over 15 minutes and decided to try again, only this time I got an error message.

Microsoft’s demands

Sighing, I decided to try getting the app directly from the Microsoft App store. This time it installed but clicking on the launcher did absolutely nothing. The game never launched, and no tasks created inside Task Manager. So back into the app store I went, finding the launcher and clicking play. Then a new error message popped up.

At this point I wanted to smash my head into the desk

Clearly, I was not meant to use this version of the Minecraft launcher. I was also not alone, with hundreds of reviewers having the same exact problems and rating the app with one star. Even the few 5 stars I found still noted the same issues, and in some cases, just left a bad review while giving it a 5-star rating.

Clearly people are not happy here
5 stars of unhappiness

Overall, the score at the time of this writing remains at 2.2 stars.

Tsk tsk

So, what is the solution? Well, first I uninstalled the app from Settings -> Apps. Next, I went to the Minecraft download page and downloaded the Windows 7/8 package. Then I installed it and was brought to the all too familiar launch page, where I was able to finally sign in and play the game. Though, humorously, it prompted me to try the new and improved launcher… from the App store. No thank you, Microsoft.

Yeah, no thanks….

KB5009624 Causing Some Domain Controllers to Reboot

Update: This issue has been resolved with new updates released by Microsoft.

Today, I had the pleasure of troubleshooting why a domain controller was continually, and randomly, rebooting itself. Though, rebooting is a light term, when the reality was the server was entering a fault state (aka, crashing) and rebooting to recover. Inspection of the event logs revealed Event ID 1074, which stated:

The process wininit.exe has initiated the restart of computer on behalf of user32 for the following reason: No title for this reason could be found

Reason Code: 0x50006

Shutdown Type: restart

Comment: The system process ‘C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe’ terminated unexpectedly with status code [blank]. The system will now shut down and restart.

One or two Google searches later, refined to display only from the past week, I found a post where someone figured out that Microsoft Window’s Server 2012 R2 Security Update KB5009624 was the cause of the reboots, further detailed here.

Microsoft did release an emergency out of band update (KB5010794) though it is listed as an Optional update. So if you are not in the habit of installing those optional updates, now is a good time to start.

However, if you don’t want to install that optional update (for whatever reason), this fix is simple enough: either go to Windows Update -> Installed Updates -> and select it and click Uninstall; or, go to Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> View Installed Updates -> and select it and click Uninstall. (Note: a reboot will be required).