App & Browser control section is completely missing from windows security center

klepp0906 · May 27, 2022

Anyone else have this? Or know of a fix?
I just upgraded to the beta ring in anticipation of a few welcome additions. Apparently 22621.1 is RTM and so i figured it would be a good time to get ahead of the changes and familiarize now etc.
First attempt at an upgrade I came back to my PC to an "inaccessible boot device" green screen of death. I tried again and somehow it was now accessible evidently.

I started perusing the list of changes and tailoring my install to fit my needs. I got to the new SAC (smart app control) thing they apparently added to windows security so I went to open it up, and the entire section which would contain said setting is gone. removed. missing. App & Browser control is nowhere to be found.

If i use a search for app & browser control the setting shows up but when I click it, a blank window opens briefly then closes. Any fix? tried an sfc /scannow and dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth both to no avail.

taking all suggestions cause after giving up a 6+ years long standing-fully customized for my workflow-windows 10 install as well as conceding on the multi monitor taskbar support (which almost, almost had me sticking to windows 10 like one of the EOL windows 7 zealots), i'd really hate to think my install is already borked after a week or two.

RFS · May 27, 2022

Is your device PC fully compliant with Windows 11 requirements? It would be useful if you could fill out your specs in the My Computer section.

klepp0906 · May 27, 2022

yes, its fully complaint. the app & browser section was there and working fine prior to enrolling in the insider builds

only other mention of it i could find is here Missing "App & Browser Control" in Windows Security in Windows 11 OS Build 22621.1 which appears to be some kind of either aggregate or foreign or both.

Brink · May 27, 2022

Hello klepp,

You can check to see if the issue may be from it hidden like in the tutorial below. If so, you can set it to show again.

Hide App and Browser Control in Windows Security in Windows 10

Hide or Show App and Browser Control in Windows Security in Windows 10

www.tenforums.com

RFS · May 27, 2022

Just checked the wife's PC and it seems she has the same problem. If I go to Device Security I get this

If I search settings for App and Browser Control and click on it, it just exits. It actually fails with this

Seems there's a problem somewhere. My main 2 PCs are OK. Hers is not compliant regarding the processor, but it does have TPM 2.0, Secure Boot and UEFI BIOS. And I was able to enable Core Isolation as well before 22621 upgrade, although that being simulated in firmware does slow the PC down a bit.

klepp0906 · May 27, 2022

Brink said:
Hello klepp, :)

You can check to see if the issue may be from it hidden like in the tutorial below. If so, you can set it to show again.

Hide App and Browser Control in Windows Security in Windows 10

Hide or Show App and Browser Control in Windows Security in Windows 10

www.tenforums.com

while id have zero idea how that group policy would have been modified, this sounded like a good suggestion. I modified the policy to force it to show with no change in behavior. I checked the registry key and it doesnt even exist so cant be the culprit. Thank you though, at least i can omit those from being responsible.

here is what I have at current

Brink · May 27, 2022

As a test, run/open the shortcut/command below that is suppose to directly open to App & browser control in Windows Security.

%windir%\explorer.exe windowsdefender://appbrowser

RFS · May 27, 2022

Brink said:
As a test, run/open the shortcut/command below that is suppose to directly open to App & browser control in Windows Security.

%windir%\explorer.exe windowsdefender://appbrowser

Just tried this on my Wife's PC. The window opens but is blank. After a couple of seconds it closes, and the error log shows the fault as in my previous post.

klepp0906 · May 27, 2022

RFS said:
Just checked the wife's PC and it seems she has the same problem. If I go to Device Security I get this

View attachment 30151

If I search settings for App and Browser Control and click on it, it just exits. It actually fails with this

View attachment 30152

Seems there's a problem somewhere. My main 2 PCs are OK. Hers is not compliant regarding the processor, but it does have TPM 2.0, Secure Boot and UEFI BIOS. And I was able to enable Core Isolation as well before 22621 upgrade, although that being simulated in firmware does slow the PC down a bit.

ah good catch. core isolation is no longer around for me either (i forget where it was nestled at prior). I also dont get the sechealthui.exe error popup, window just closes. (unless thats something 3rd party or that has to be enabled/a debug setting or accessed via event viewer or something)

seems drivers etc may not be shored up or windows security center might need updates still before we get to september/october.
oddly enough, TPM still seems to be working at least. I use 1Password and it has an option that without TPM is greyed out/does not function.

also no idea what smartscreen has to do with TPM regardless, it must be tied to the new feature they just added.

Brink · May 27, 2022

In that case, you could try doing a repair install of Windows 11 below to try and fix this without losing anything.

Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to do a repair install of Windows 11 by performing an in-place upgrade without losing anything. If you need to repair or create a new recovery partition or having problems with the Windows 11 operating system on your PC, and the usual solutions will not fix it...

www.elevenforum.com

klepp0906 · May 27, 2022

RFS said:
Just tried this on my Wife's PC. The window opens but is blank. After a couple of seconds it closes, and the error log shows the fault as in my previous post.

same result.

klepp0906 · May 27, 2022

Brink said:
In that case, you could try doing a repair install of Windows 11 below to try and fix this without losing anything.

Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to do a repair install of Windows 11 by performing an in-place upgrade without losing anything. If you need to repair or create a new recovery partition or having problems with the Windows 11 operating system on your PC, and the usual solutions will not fix it...

www.elevenforum.com

ugh, the nuclear option. no knowing what exactly that reverts. a lot of things it does not, but im sure some customizations it will. its always something. my fault for insider'ing i guess. it hasnt been (i think Microsoft gives you 10 days?) past the time to where I can roll back so thats always an option as well I suppose.

tpm.msc says im golden too. no idea how related it is to tpm in the first place but seems theres at least some relation or its a separate issue that device security is also being wonky

RFS · May 27, 2022

I have another old PC that does not even have a TPM and I only use it for some testing. This also has 22621.1 installed but was done via a clean install and it does not have this problem. So it seems it's not related to hardware configuration. Wife's PC was clean-installed to 22000.675 and then 22621 was updated via Windows Update with the PC now on Beta instead of Release Preview.

I will try clean-installing 22621 on a separate SSD and see if that changes things.

klepp0906 · May 27, 2022

RFS said:
I have another old PC that does not even have a TPM and I only use it for some testing. This also has 22621.1 installed but was done via a clean install and it does not have this problem. So it seems it's not related to hardware configuration. Wife's PC was clean-installed to 22000.675 and then 22621 was updated via Windows Update with the PC now on Beta instead of Release Preview.

I will try clean-installing 22621 on a separate SSD and see if that changes things.

yea the only other pc i have access to is definitely not windows 11'able (amd fx9590 lol). I will force the install on it at some point but I still use it for reference on a lot of windows 10 things. I do a lot of my testing win11 wise in a VM but that does me no good in this case. Well it could, maybe if i created a throwaway microsoft account to insiders ring it or whathaveyou but I havent been motivated enough to do so, at least yet.
I just downloaded the 22621.1 iso and will in place upgrade if i absolutely have to. (looking that way). Assuming that even fixes it. Gonna hold off to see what your findings are though. I'm curious if its related to something specific, or just some freak hiccup that can happen during windows upgrade due to .... things.

RFS · May 27, 2022

Just remembered I did do a clean install of 22621.1 for her PC on a spare SSD I had, but decided not to proceed with all the customization and instead let Windows Update install the change on the original SSD.

Just plugged that SSD in and all now looks correct. There is obviously a problem somewhere as 2 of us have experienced it, but a clean install seems to work. Don't know whether a repair install will also fix it.

klepp0906 · May 27, 2022

RFS said:
Just remembered I did do a clean install of 22621.1 for her PC on a spare SSD I had, but decided not to proceed with all the customization and instead let Windows Update install the change on the original SSD.

Just plugged that SSD in and all now looks correct. There is obviously a problem somewhere as 2 of us have experienced it, but a clean install seems to work. Don't know whether a repair install will also fix it.

well, a clean install is off the table thats for sure. already way too "on-the-way" to being set up for the long haul. was almost to the point of finishing up refining my backup script and then i just had to figure out what on earth im going to do about the start menu. other than that im done. softwares installed. configured. etc. almost playtime. rip.
well i guess my turn to guinea pig. just ran a backup and going to start a repair to see how it goes. hopefully it doesnt reset or undo too much. im sure optional features will return in full force among other things

klepp0906 · May 27, 2022

well, i did the repair install. nothing. no change, no fix, no bueno. I proceeded to try a repair and a reset of windows security, also no bueno. No idea whats going on but im thoroughly agitated now. 20 someodd years of computing and it still makes me insane when someone elses software/program blows something up. doubly or triply so when its somebody with the resources microsoft has.
going off on a bit of a tangent but look at apple. they apparently steal all the best and brighest. There will always be bugs, but none of my apple devices ever straight up break on an update or upgrade. Microsoft has bitten me more times than I can count. Nvidia has even blown things up a few times of their own. Nahimic is notorious.

anyways. digressing.
not sure what to do now. might have to roll back the update. that will leave me wondering if september when it goes live (since this is RTM) is going to get me and im delaying the inevitable, or if i should hang tight and a fix will be pushed to the beta channel or some such.
Hopefully someone else chimes in or knows of some more troubleshooting or process of elimination that can be done.

klepp0906 · May 27, 2022

huh, found this KB5014650 Windows 11 22H2 Insider Dev and Beta Build 22616.100 (ni_release) - May 10 and oddly enough mine is too.
now i have to dig up how to fix it, been a loooooong time since ive came across this issue. wonder if its related.

klepp0906 · May 27, 2022

seems it caused several recovery partitions to boot (no pun intended). this is exhausting

klepp0906 · May 28, 2022

well roll back was a wash, i guess the timeframe alotted for that is shorted than I realized or something. I ended up restoring an image from the day prior to upgrading and all was well in the world again. I did find another poster on the microsoft forum going on about it being an upgrade issue as it had happened to him as well. something will have to wait for them to work out i guess.

shame as i noticed the update fixed vmware virtual adapters showing up as unidentified networks too.
gonna try to yolo another upgrade but this time via the ISO instead of through windows update.