Solved Microsoft Edge not starting

I encountered the same " flashing Edge " -problem , tried several options , no luck .
Then gave some more permissions in Esets firewall ( edge, edge-update, webvieuw , etc.)
and boooom (!) Edge did not flash anymore..............

I have Chrome Beta, Edge Stable and Edge Canary which are all running without issues. Chrome is Chrome. Edge is Chromium based, not Chrome based and different. Chrome is a web browser developed by Google whereas Chromium is an open-source software project also created by Google, whose source code serves as a building ground for many other popular browsers so Chrome itself will ofcourse have the same code but also proprietary code in it.

Started PC in safe mode and neither Edge or Chrome would start but Firefox did. Norton has a feature called Anti Track. They've configured it for Edge and Chrome but they're still working on getting it to run with Firefox. I have opened a problem report with Norton and let's see where that goes, since I don't seem to be able to uninstall Anti Track at this time. Thanks @Fabler2 for the heads-up.

rzn6jw said:

Started PC in safe mode and neither Edge or Chrome would start but Firefox did. Norton has a feature called Anti Track. They've configured it for Edge and Chrome but they're still working on getting it to run with Firefox. I have opened a problem report with Norton and let's see where that goes, since I don't seem to be able to uninstall Anti Track at this time. Thanks @Fabler2 for the heads-up.

Click to expand...

Hope they fix it soon. In the mean time you can use the non chromium Firefox.

@johnlgalt mentioned scripts were running, in a previous post, guess that's something to do with Norton.

Noticed this again. These messages appear in the Windows/System logs every time I try to start either Edge or Chrome:

IsolatedUserMode
Secure Trustlet NULL Id 0 and Pid 0 started with status STATUS_SUCCESS
Secure Trustlet Id 0 and Pid 0 stopped with status STATUS_SUCCESS

Could this have something to do with my problems?

Are you using any software like sandboxie? Do you have BitLocker enabled?

Regardless of the answers to the above - have you tried disabling 360AV and then loading Edge? I mean, if you're worried about a completely random drive-by infection that would have to be the world's best timed attack, disconnect from your network and disable your network interfaces so it cannot access the network in anyway, then try disabling 360AV, and then see if Edge / Chrome run or not.

Since both browsers are doing it, it's something with the system. Since both browsers are doing it even with an earlier system backup image, I wonder if it is actually a 360AV issue all on its own. That Anti-Trak feature sure seems suspect at this point, doesn't it? The two browsers Symantec has it working on are the same two browsers that will not start for either of you two.

As for those entries - the reference to IsolatedUserMode is what made me think about Sandboxie. I don't recall having seen that before, so I'm off to research this to see if I can figure out what it is. I suspect this will quickly escalate if it really is tied to 360AV - because that means more people are gonna start to encounter it very soon.

No BitLocker. Disabled Norton Firewall & disconnected internet. Neither browser started. Uninstalled Anti Track. Neither browser started. I use VirtualBox for some BOINC apps. Disabled VirtualBox. Neither browser started.

Again, as I posted earlier, it all started yesterday afternoon. Used Edge in the morning with no problem. Wouldn't start in the afternoon. Chrome started and ran OK until it updated itself. After update, it wouldn't start.

Again, each attempt to start either browser resulted in the IsolatedUserMode messages in the logs. Again, I have never see the IsolatedUserMode messages before the problems started yesterday afternoon.

What does the Chrome update do that now makes Chrome issue a IsolatedUserMode message and not start.

You can try this test. Use Norton's uninstaller tool (making sure you have a record of the key to reinstall) reboot then Defender will kick in. Try opening Edge. That should prove or disprove that Norton may be the culprit. Reinstall Norton at your leisure.

OK, since you have an exact time frame for when it started - check to see what Windows Update might have installed in that interim. And, if 360 provides it, check to see what 360 may also have installed in that interim.

Also, I don't know if it is possible, but can you disable 360 from running at boot, remain disconnected from the Internet, and reboot and try the browsers? It may be a module that, once loaded, say perhaps via a service, it remains running even if you 'disable' it from the program interface because it actually is a setting to disable it from running at startup, versus actually terminating it when it is already running.

Good call @Fabler2 - that may be the next step to troubleshoot this. It would certainly take care of what I just wrote above if that is true.

Back to the rebooting thing. Safe Mode doesn't make a difference. However, I made a test admin account, switched users to that account, and both browsers work. Since the test user admin account and my normal admin account use the same OS programs, updates, etc. it makes me wonder if something in that update messed with my admin account. And again back to the IsolatedUserMode messages. How does a browser issue the message and what turns IsolatedUserMode off?

Also did a DISM /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth and a sfc /scannow and no issues were found.

The browser is a piece of software, and makes use of system components to do its job. Windows does some fairly high level logging of all things that go on - starting apps, terminating apps, loading modules, and more.

One thing I'm curious about - in the new test account, are either browser s using the same profile as in your regular account? And since you have a test account handy right now, can you double check both Windows Update and 360 to see when the most recent updates were installed for any packages that were in that time frame from when it was working to when it broke?

rzn6jw said:

Noticed this again. These messages appear in the Windows/System logs every time I try to start either Edge or Chrome:

IsolatedUserMode
Secure Trustlet NULL Id 0 and Pid 0 started with status STATUS_SUCCESS
Secure Trustlet Id 0 and Pid 0 stopped with status STATUS_SUCCESS

Could this have something to do with my problems?

Click to expand...

Are those messages just informational, or associated with warnings / errors?

Everything I see regarding those messages is associated with LSA, and this MS Community thread goes into a bit of detail:


And an old thread here shows another user also seeing it, but in his screenshot, it is just informational, so not an actual issue per se.


But it all seems to revolve around the Credential Guard in Windows Security.

I'm beginning to suspect that a module in 360 is not playing nicely with Windows Defender in some way, manner, or fashion.

Turned Windows Defender off but it made no difference.

@johnlgalt how do I check the profile account in the 'test' domain?

In Chrome, open a new tab, type in chrome:version - it will open a page with a lot of info.

Search for Profile Path: - you should see something like this to the right: D:\Users\q1w2e3r4\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User (ignore the drive letter, My install is very customized).

Look at the section right after D:\Users\ - Is it the new admin username or the old one?

Technically, it should point to the new one, as this is a physically separate Windows account.

And, if you logged into Chrome and it automatically set everything back up for you, like history, bookmarks, addons, etc., then try using it for a day or so and see if this profile breaks also.

Chrome user data: \users\test\appdata\local\google\chrome\user data\default
Edge user data: Profile 1
Firefox, Edge, and Chrome do not have any bookmarks in the 'test' domain.
Firefox is v119.0.1 for both test and primary users
Edge is v119.0.2151.44 for both test and primary users
Chrome is v119.0.6045.124 for both test and primary users.

So they are identical for each user.

Makes me believe that something has changed for the primary user (me).

Ran MalwareBytes and it found about 20 'pup.optional....' files and quarantined them. Didn't change either start up.

Norton didn't have any updates for the time period in question. Edge worked yesterday morning, not in the afternoon. Chrome worked yesterday afternoon until its update, then not after the update.

I don't see anything concerning updates to Edge yesterday at all. At a loss here.

Now I'm noticing these messages from HTTPService:

Attempted to add URL (http://*:2869/upnp/eventing/) to URL group (0xFD00000120000008). Status: 0x0. Process Id 0x1350 Executable path \Device\HarddiskVolume1\Windows\System32\svchost.exe, User LOCAL SERVICE

Removed URL (http://*:2869/upnp/eventing/) from URL group (0xFD00000120000007). Process Id 0x1350 Executable path \Device\HarddiskVolume1\Windows\System32\svchost.exe, User LOCAL SERVICE

These messages are continuously being entered into the System Log.

I need to somehow turn off IsolatedUserMode.

According to this:


It's not malicious. And if those items show as information, it means Widnows is also not worried about them.

But it was also reported here:


Check that thread out and see if the suggestions work for you for this. But nothing really came of it other than verifying that the Service was not started, and Fabler2 showed as having them also.

Heck, I have them too, so it seems this is normal.

rzn6jw said:

Started PC in safe mode and neither Edge or Chrome would start but Firefox did. Norton has a feature called Anti Track. They've configured it for Edge and Chrome but they're still working on getting it to run with Firefox. I have opened a problem report with Norton and let's see where that goes, since I don't seem to be able to uninstall Anti Track at this time. Thanks @Fabler2 for the heads-up.

Click to expand...

Norton has their own forums and this appears to be related to Chromium browsers except theirs crashes hourly and not as part of loading up the browser:
Norton is crashing Google Chrome

so you might want to post there as the forums actually fixed problems in the past where actual support would not do anything...

rzn6jw said:

Chrome user data: \users\test\appdata\local\google\chrome\user data\default
Edge user data: Profile 1
Firefox, Edge, and Chrome do not have any bookmarks in the 'test' domain.
Firefox is v119.0.1 for both test and primary users
Edge is v119.0.2151.44 for both test and primary users
Chrome is v119.0.6045.124 for both test and primary users.

So they are identical for each user.

Makes me believe that something has changed for the primary user (me).

Ran MalwareBytes and it found about 20 'pup.optional....' files and quarantined them. Didn't change either start up.

Norton didn't have any updates for the time period in question. Edge worked yesterday morning, not in the afternoon. Chrome worked yesterday afternoon until its update, then not after the update.

I don't see anything concerning updates to Edge yesterday at all. At a loss here.

Click to expand...

Can you see if the latest EDGE that was released to today which is 119.0.2151.58 stable has the issue, you may need to use the installer from Download Microsoft Edge