Application doesn't start from start menu but does from explorer

Garud · Sunday at 10:11 AM

Hello folks

I am facing a weird issue since this morning. I have Cakewalk installed, and I generally pin my applications to the start menu for quick access. I have been opening Cakewalk from the pinned icon for a while now. This morning, on starting my PC, I got an update for Internet Download Manager, which I installed and initiated a restart. This restart hung, and after half an hour of the spinning restart text, I force-reset my PC. Immediately, I knew something was wrong as the PC wouldn't progress from the splash screen. A complete shutdown and restart opened up the RE, and I simply restarted from there, which went smoothly.

Now, when I tried to launch Cakewalk from the start menu, it wouldn't open. I did some diagnosis and found the following Error event in Event Viewer

Code:

Faulting application name: Cakewalk.exe, version: 29.9.0.125, time stamp: 0x676089bc
Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 10.0.26100.4161, time stamp: 0x7cc2cdb5
Exception code: 0xc0000374
Fault offset: 0x000000000011dcc5
Faulting process id: 0x8A70
Faulting application start time: 0x1DBD2F4C909834B
Faulting application path: G:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core\Cakewalk.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll
Report Id: cb9fcf8e-f206-46bd-99cd-29e2d01be60c
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

followed by an Information event

Code:

Fault bucket 1155865208099618252, type 4
Event Name: APPCRASH
Response: Not available
Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:
P1: Cakewalk.exe
P2: 29.9.0.125
P3: 676089bc
P4: StackHash_ff59
P5: 10.0.26100.4161
P6: 7cc2cdb5
P7: c0000374
P8: PCH_BE_FROM_ntdll+0x0000000000162874
P9:
P10:

Attached files:
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER.ce60f8ed-6333-43f0-bb2a-315fd973f42d.tmp.mdmp
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER.b38a6650-15da-45c8-ae69-a6161e3f9313.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
WPR_initiated_DiagTrackMiniLogger_OneTrace_User_Logger_20240808_1_EC_0_inject.etl
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER.40a1dcf0-a5e1-433a-a04a-efd947edd89c.tmp.etl
WPR_initiated_DiagTrackMiniLogger_WPR System Collector_inject.etl
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER.7d8c6011-f50d-473e-9cb8-c2328f4ddcdc.tmp.etl
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER.11e18c3b-5616-4cb4-936e-4e18fc866410.tmp.csv
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER.99bf83d0-3c35-4698-a369-5cabfe51e71e.tmp.txt
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER.55e4cfcc-81de-4c19-aef2-e054f231da01.tmp.xml

These files may be available here:
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\AppCrash_Cakewalk.exe_7f2a74c92fa99341f9ded815939e3a59987b3148_4966f113_6acf52cf-12c1-463e-8502-667afe26e5ce

Analysis symbol:
Rechecking for solution: 0
Report Id: cb9fcf8e-f206-46bd-99cd-29e2d01be60c
Report Status: 268435456
Hashed bucket: 73831169fcc13ccac00a75486102bdcc
Cab Guid: 0

So, I did the usual steps of running sfc, dsim, chkdsk, and even mdsched, and although chkdsk found some errors which it fixed, my issue remains. I even re-installed Cakewalk 2 times, taking care to do a clean uninstall. That is when I found a very similar thread on this forum [SOLVED] - Stackhash APPCRASH issue, Windows 7 SP1, and the circumstances and the issue are pretty much the same. For me, Explorer doesn't show any issues or at least none that have popped up yet, and I have yet to see the same problem with another application.

Moreover, some very weird things are happening, which I will list down

Clicking on the pinned icon of the application in the start menu or taskbar, or clicking on the Desktop shortcut or even the icon in Start->All->Cakewalk->Cakewalk by BandLab, all behave the same way. Looking at the task manager, the application starts and then quits. The application's splash screen doesn't show at all.
Running any one of the above as an administrator starts the application just fine.
Running the shortcut in the explorer at C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Cakewalk\Cakewalk by BandLab starts the application just fine without needing to elevate.
Running the application by clicking the .exe also runs the application just fine
If I create a fresh shortcut from the .exe, that shortcut behaves the exact same way.
I temporarily created a new user account and tried to run Cakewalk from the start menu in that account, and it worked!

Given the similarity of my issue to the one in the thread and the fact that uninstalling doesn't fix it, I think something got broken in Windows and not in Cakewalk during that failed restart. Can someone help me figure this out?

Berton · Sunday at 10:36 AM

Just a note, I was going to try Cakewalk for a client's request but have to pass, I don't have a computer running the Insider Preview version any longer but will watch this for the outcome.

OAT · Sunday at 10:48 AM

Garud said:
I temporarily created a new user account and tried to run Cakewalk from the start menu in that account, and it worked!

Hello,
This seems to indicate that your user hive has been corrupted and the corruption in the registry remains despite the program uninstallation.
I would uninstall the program again, making sure all shortcuts are gone, then do a reg search in hive HKEY_CURRENT_USER for any Cakewalk reference (pressing F3 in regedit) and delete all references to the program and its path.
There is no guarantee here as a user registry corruption can be problematic and hard to solve, it may have been caused by an improper shutdown.
Any backup available? Restore point?

Garud · Sunday at 11:10 AM

OAT said:
do a reg search in key HKEY_CURRENT_USER for any Cakewalk reference (pressing F3 in regedit)
and delete all references to the program.

I had deleted the keys mentioned in this help document Clean Install Cakewalk by BandLab, after uninstalling each time. Now I see that there are other references to cakewalk, most of which mention the installation path and DWORD values. I dunno if I should be going around deleting them.

OAT said:
Any backup available? Restore point?

I do have a restore point from yesterday, but I have done a ton of installations since that point, and I was trying not to restore. I am afraid that restoring now might break those other programs that I had installed and updated. note: I have never done a system restore before, and hence a bit apprehensive tbh.

It would be great if I could fix this issue, but I don't know the root cause of this.

glasskuter · Sunday at 11:14 AM

@OAT is spot on. The problem is corruption in YOUR user account, not in the OS itself. His solution is also correct.
System Restore MIGHT fix it since it's registry related.
Searching for and deleting all references to the app within HKCU MIGHT fix it
Restoring an image WOULD fix it.

Otherwise, creating a new user and migrating your data into it is the only solution. If it comes to this, report back for the proper way to do this.
NOTE: You CAN NOT directly copy and paste user files from one account to another. Doing so will mess up the permissions on the files.

By the way, kudos on your troubleshooting and the way you wrote your post. Excellent post.

glasskuter · Sunday at 11:41 AM

I thought of something else that may sound stupid (and probably is)but it would be worth a try since you have no idea what in your registry hive is corrupted. Also, if you are using a MS account and have your desktop syncing to onedrive, this will rule out any problem with onedrive)

Delete the current shortcut from your desktop and remove it from your taskbar if it's there. Restart.

Go to your downloads folder.
In the downloads folder, Manually create a new shortcut to the app (New>shortcut from context menu.) Name it something completely different from original shortcut.
Can you access the app using that shortcut? If you can, drag that shortcut to the desktop. Can you still access the app?

Garud · Sunday at 3:33 PM

glasskuter said:
Restoring an image WOULD fix it.

Well, I spent the last 4 hours restoring the image and then uninstalling and re-installing the applications. And while I was able to open Cakewalk from the start menu initially, it again stopped working after a while. I don't know what exactly triggered it, but this time there were no force restarts or anything. Just a normal restart, and it stopped working again.

glasskuter said:
creating a new user and migrating your data into it is the only solution

I would rather stick it out than do that. Migrating almost 5 years' worth of user data from one profile to another, I would rather do a fresh install lol.

glasskuter said:
I thought of something else that may sound stupid (and probably is)but it would be worth a try since you have no idea what in your registry hive is corrupted

It's not a stupid idea, and in fact, I had already tried it but forgot to mention it. The situation is the same. I can open the application using the shortcut no matter where it is located, as long as I open it via the explorer. Even if I copy the shortcut to the desktop folder, I can open it when using the explorer, but can't from the Desktop itself.

In the meantime, I tried a few things to try and pin down the issue.

Running the exe from command prompt or powershell triggers the same error event
If the app is running and minimised, trying to run the app from the start menu causes the app to come to the foreground and maximise.

It's getting late, I will try some more ideas but will return tomorrow. I wish I knew more about Windows internals to run a debugger for this.

Application doesn't start from start menu but does from explorer

Garud

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Berton

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OAT

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Garud

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glasskuter

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glasskuter

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Garud

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