Windows 11 Pro Installation: Unable to run .exe, .cmd, or .ps1 files


Ghost1959

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Windows 10 19043.1149 x64
I've loaded multiple different versions of Windows 11 Pro on modern hardware (Z590 mainboard, DDR4 RAM, etc.). Each install was clean (I wiped the boot SSD each time). I was able to successfully load the OS each time, but I am unable to execute any .exe, .cmd, or .ps1 files, programs, or scripts. I get an error stating that there is no associated program available.

I've used only clean ISOs downloaded from UUPDump, and even one from MS MDT. All have June 2026 updates. I use a small autounattend.xml to create a local user account, with nothing else added or removed. It is very generic. I have not tried older ISOs yet, but I may when I have time.

Does anyone have any clues? I'm at the frustrated, pulling-my-hair-out stage.

TIA
 
Windows Build/Version
2800.2340

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 10 19043.1149 x64
OS
Windows 10 19043.1149 x64
Some exes must run or the system wouldn't even start up. Can you run notepad or mspaint or anything else from the Start menu? Can your run cmd.exe or powershell.exe? Please post a screenshot of the error. There are sometimes clues in the screenshot that a simple description misses.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 10/11
OS
Windows 10/11
Computer type
Laptop
Manufacturer/Model
Acer
I can run the base programs (notepad, etc.). Command prompt and Powershell won't launch at all but Terminal will. I'll provide a screenshot of the error once I get home from the 9 to 5....
 

My Computer My Computer

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Windows 10 19043.1149 x64
OS
Windows 10 19043.1149 x64
Under System Settings / Activation, are you in "Windows S" mode?
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7
OS
Windows 7
Good suggestion. I'll check when I get home from work.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 10 19043.1149 x64
OS
Windows 10 19043.1149 x64
Windows S mode is enforced by writing some UEFI variables, so it survives across multiple re-installs. Which is sneaky, but I believe it was originally intended for kiosk mode or "locked down" environments. The problem is some PC's get sold with S mode from the factory.

The normal solution is to download a free Windows Store "app" (it's not a real app) which clears S mode. Another fix mentioned online is to disable Secure Boot, and reboot twice in a row. Twice because Windows sees it's rebooted without Secure Boot and clears some UEFI settings, and the second to make those changes take effect.

Either solution should make S mode disappear for future re-installs.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7
OS
Windows 7
Interesting. The hardware involved is DIY (ASUS mainboard, etc.) so it never had an "S" version OS on it but it did have an older Windows OS with the older kernel and I'll need to see if I truely wiped the UEFI and old boot code from the drive. I also enabled secure boot as I was setting this up for eventual sale and wanted it as generic as possile on the way out the door. I'll report back in hopes of saving someone else the time...
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 10 19043.1149 x64
OS
Windows 10 19043.1149 x64
In your unattended file, are you "wiping" by using a disk layout? Or running diskpart "clean, convert gpt" before installing?

I'm wondering if there are leftover policy files in the EFI volume. If Setup thinks it has to recreate every filesystem, then it will quick format the EFI volume and only copy the default files over. A number of Windows policy files can be hidden in the EFI (for boot-time enforcement).
 

My Computer My Computer

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Windows 7
OS
Windows 7
I never use autounattend.xml to format the OS drive. I always manually setup the boot drive. I'll use Acronis Disk Director to re-initilize the SSD and go from there.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 10 19043.1149 x64
OS
Windows 10 19043.1149 x64
I am not sure about modern Setup, I didn't find the screen where you choose your disk, but if you switch to classic Setup and see that screen make sure you delete all partitions until the whole SSD is unallocated. No need to create any partitions manually, just click to start installing and Setup will automatically create them.
 

My Computers My Computers

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Pro 23H2 (5699), 25H2 (8737)Mobile DualCore Intel Core 2 Duo T7250, 2000 MHz4GBMobile Intel(R) GMA 4500M (Mobile 4 series)
    OS
    Windows 11 Pro 23H2 (5699), 25H2 (8737)
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Extensa 5630EZ
    CPU
    Mobile DualCore Intel Core 2 Duo T7250, 2000 MHz
    Motherboard
    Acer Extensa 5630
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Mobile Intel(R) GMA 4500M (Mobile 4 series)
    Sound Card
    Realtek ALC268 @ Intel 82801IB ICH9 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB SATA Device (250 GB, SATA-III)
    Internet Speed
    VDSL 50 Mbps
    Browser
    MICROSOFT EDGE
    Antivirus
    WINDOWS DEFENDER
    Other Info
    Legacy MBR installation, no TPM, no Secure Boot, no WDDM 2.0 graphics drivers, no SSE4.2, cannot get more unsupported ;) This is only my test laptop. I had installed Windows 11 here before upgrading my main PC. For my main PC I use everyday see my 2nd system specs.
  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Pro v25H2 (build 26200.8737)Intel Core-i7 3770 3.40GHz s1155 (3rd generat...2x Kingston Hyper-X Blu 8GB DDR3-1600GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3050 WINDFORCE OC V2 6GB...
    Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro v25H2 (build 26200.8737)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom-built PC
    CPU
    Intel Core-i7 3770 3.40GHz s1155 (3rd generation)
    Motherboard
    Asus P8H61 s1155 ATX
    Memory
    2x Kingston Hyper-X Blu 8GB DDR3-1600
    Graphics card(s)
    GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3050 WINDFORCE OC V2 6GB (GV-N3050WF2OCV2-6GD)
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD audio (ALC887)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Sony Bravia KDL-19L4000 19" LCD TV via VGA
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900 32-bit 60Hz
    Hard Drives
    WD Blue SA510 2.5 1000GB SSD as system disk, Western Digital Caviar Purple 4TB SATA III (WD40PURZ) as second
    PSU
    Thermaltake Litepower RGB 550W Full Wired
    Case
    SUPERCASE MIDI-TOWER
    Cooling
    Deepcool Gamma Archer CPU cooler, 1x 8cm fan at the back
    Keyboard
    Mitsumi 101-key PS/2
    Mouse
    Sunnyline OptiEye PS/2
    Internet Speed
    100Mbps
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox
    Antivirus
    Microsoft Windows Defender
    Other Info
    Legacy BIOS (MBR) installation, no TPM, no Secure Boot, WDDM 3.0 graphics drivers, WEI score 7.4
I am not sure about modern Setup, I didn't find the screen where you choose your disk, but if you switch to classic Setup and see that screen make sure you delete all partitions until the whole SSD is unallocated. No need to create any partitions manually, just click to start installing and Setup will automatically create them.
I start from a re-initiazed (completely blank) drive. Based on the suggestions so far I'll go back and start over and see if I need to do more troubleshooting.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 10 19043.1149 x64
OS
Windows 10 19043.1149 x64
I've loaded multiple different versions of Windows 11 Pro on modern hardware (Z590 mainboard, DDR4 RAM, etc.). Each install was clean (I wiped the boot SSD each time). I was able to successfully load the OS each time, but I am unable to execute any .exe, .cmd, or .ps1 files, programs, or scripts. I get an error stating that there is no associated program available.

I've used only clean ISOs downloaded from UUPDump, and even one from MS MDT. All have June 2026 updates. I use a small autounattend.xml to create a local user account, with nothing else added or removed. It is very generic. I have not tried older ISOs yet, but I may when I have time.

Does anyone have any clues? I'm at the frustrated, pulling-my-hair-out stage.
Some exes must run or the system wouldn't even start up. Can you run notepad or mspaint or anything else from the Start menu? Can your run cmd.exe or powershell.exe? Please post a screenshot of the error. There are sometimes clues in the screenshot that a simple description misses.
Sounds like something is corrupted with file associations. Processes can be created by calling the CreateProcess or CreateProcessAsUser APIs. This is how your system processes/services are getting started despite this issue. However, the shell (Explorer) doesn't use these when the user tries to launch software. Instead, it uses the ShellExecute and ShellExecuteEx APIs—the same ones that are used for opening files/documents. Instead of explicitly loading an image to memory for process creation, these latter APIs look at the end of the filename to determine file type, look in the registry to determine what to do with the file, and execute the instructions found there. If your file association information for EXE files gets corrupted, you won't be able to launch programs from Explorer because it won't know what to do with that file type.

I can't remember if Task Manager is just as dumb or not—try opening Task Manager from [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[Esc] or [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Del]. If you can get Task Manager to open, see if you can run regedit from there (skip to the next paragraph if successful). If not, boot up your Windows installation media, press [Shift]+[F10] to open the command prompt, and launch regedit from there. From here, you'll need to manually load up the SOFTWARE registry hive (\Windows\system32\config\SOFTWARE) with an alias (e.g. "MySoftware", which you will have to use below in place of "SOFTWARE"). Note that if you choose to import the code below as a registry file, you will also need to search and replace "\SOFTWARE\C" with "\MySoftware\C" first, or it will apply to the temporary Windows PE session instead of your installed version of Windows. You can use the command prompt window to open Notepad and view/modify the saved .reg file from the PE session if needed.

Below are the default registry entries for the EXE file association:
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\.exe]
@="exefile"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\.exe\PersistentHandler]
@="{098f2470-bae0-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile]
@="Application"
"EditFlags"=hex:38,07,00,00
"FriendlyTypeName"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,\
  00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,\
  32,00,5c,00,73,00,68,00,65,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,\
  00,2c,00,2d,00,31,00,30,00,31,00,35,00,36,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\DefaultIcon]
@="%1"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shell]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shell\open]
"EditFlags"=hex:00,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shell\open\command]
@="\"%1\" %*"
"IsolatedCommand"="\"%1\" %*"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shell\runas]
"HasLUAShield"=""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shell\runas\command]
@="\"%1\" %*"
"IsolatedCommand"="\"%1\" %*"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shell\runasuser]
@="@shell32.dll,-50944"
"Extended"=""
"SuppressionPolicyEx"="{F211AA05-D4DF-4370-A2A0-9F19C09756A7}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shell\runasuser\command]
"DelegateExecute"="{ea72d00e-4960-42fa-ba92-7792a7944c1d}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shellex]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers]
@="Compatibility"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Compatibility]
@="{1d27f844-3a1f-4410-85ac-14651078412d}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\PintoStartScreen]
@="{470C0EBD-5D73-4d58-9CED-E91E22E23282}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\StartMenuExt]
@="{E595F05F-903F-4318-8B0A-7F633B520D2B}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shellex\DropHandler]
@="{86C86720-42A0-1069-A2E8-08002B30309D}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\ShimLayer Property Page]
@="{513D916F-2A8E-4F51-AEAB-0CBC76FB1AF8}"

My suggestion would be to visually compare the registry values with the ones below and make sure the important ones are present. The most important ones are ".exe"="exefile", and then the "exefile\shell\open" values. Make sure that "exefile\shell" has no values (the default value here points to the subkey that becomes the default action; "open" is assumed if no value is given, pointing to a nonexistent action could be a problem).

Considering that this is happening on a fresh install of Windows, it sounds like Microsoft really broke something important recently. Which I know they have, since I am now having a major program execution delay issue on many computers—coming up on a month now. It's really annoying, and I have been unable to debug exactly where the hangup is occuring. For all the events and telemetry that Windows constantly records, it seems not to be logging anything about whatever it's waiting on! The weird thing is how few people are talking about it—your issue and mine, if widespread—should be a catastrophic failure for Microsoft, and one you'd think they'd find and resolve quickly.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11
OS
Windows 11
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Manufacturer/Model
Intel i9-14900K
The last comment/reply reminded me that I tried a registry merge and it failed with the same error and also that attempt to take ownership of the files wasn't working as well. In the process of downloading (from UUPDump) a fresh copy of 28000.2340 without any .ini modifications that I'm going to use for further testing.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 10 19043.1149 x64
OS
Windows 10 19043.1149 x64
Sounds like something is corrupted with file associations. Processes can be created by calling the CreateProcess or CreateProcessAsUser APIs. This is how your system processes/services are getting started despite this issue. However, the shell (Explorer) doesn't use these when the user tries to launch software. Instead, it uses the ShellExecute and ShellExecuteEx APIs—the same ones that are used for opening files/documents. Instead of explicitly loading an image to memory for process creation, these latter APIs look at the end of the filename to determine file type, look in the registry to determine what to do with the file, and execute the instructions found there. If your file association information for EXE files gets corrupted, you won't be able to launch programs from Explorer because it won't know what to do with that file type.

I can't remember if Task Manager is just as dumb or not—try opening Task Manager from [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[Esc] or [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Del]. If you can get Task Manager to open, see if you can run regedit from there (skip to the next paragraph if successful). If not, boot up your Windows installation media, press [Shift]+[F10] to open the command prompt, and launch regedit from there. From here, you'll need to manually load up the SOFTWARE registry hive (\Windows\system32\config\SOFTWARE) with an alias (e.g. "MySoftware", which you will have to use below in place of "SOFTWARE"). Note that if you choose to import the code below as a registry file, you will also need to search and replace "\SOFTWARE\C" with "\MySoftware\C" first, or it will apply to the temporary Windows PE session instead of your installed version of Windows. You can use the command prompt window to open Notepad and view/modify the saved .reg file from the PE session if needed.

Below are the default registry entries for the EXE file association:
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\.exe]
@="exefile"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\.exe\PersistentHandler]
@="{098f2470-bae0-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile]
@="Application"
"EditFlags"=hex:38,07,00,00
"FriendlyTypeName"=hex(2):40,00,25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,\
  00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,\
  32,00,5c,00,73,00,68,00,65,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,\
  00,2c,00,2d,00,31,00,30,00,31,00,35,00,36,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\DefaultIcon]
@="%1"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shell]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shell\open]
"EditFlags"=hex:00,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shell\open\command]
@="\"%1\" %*"
"IsolatedCommand"="\"%1\" %*"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shell\runas]
"HasLUAShield"=""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shell\runas\command]
@="\"%1\" %*"
"IsolatedCommand"="\"%1\" %*"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shell\runasuser]
@="@shell32.dll,-50944"
"Extended"=""
"SuppressionPolicyEx"="{F211AA05-D4DF-4370-A2A0-9F19C09756A7}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shell\runasuser\command]
"DelegateExecute"="{ea72d00e-4960-42fa-ba92-7792a7944c1d}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shellex]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers]
@="Compatibility"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Compatibility]
@="{1d27f844-3a1f-4410-85ac-14651078412d}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\PintoStartScreen]
@="{470C0EBD-5D73-4d58-9CED-E91E22E23282}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\StartMenuExt]
@="{E595F05F-903F-4318-8B0A-7F633B520D2B}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shellex\DropHandler]
@="{86C86720-42A0-1069-A2E8-08002B30309D}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\ShimLayer Property Page]
@="{513D916F-2A8E-4F51-AEAB-0CBC76FB1AF8}"

My suggestion would be to visually compare the registry values with the ones below and make sure the important ones are present. The most important ones are ".exe"="exefile", and then the "exefile\shell\open" values. Make sure that "exefile\shell" has no values (the default value here points to the subkey that becomes the default action; "open" is assumed if no value is given, pointing to a nonexistent action could be a problem).

Considering that this is happening on a fresh install of Windows, it sounds like Microsoft really broke something important recently. Which I know they have, since I am now having a major program execution delay issue on many computers—coming up on a month now. It's really annoying, and I have been unable to debug exactly where the hangup is occuring. For all the events and telemetry that Windows constantly records, it seems not to be logging anything about whatever it's waiting on! The weird thing is how few people are talking about it—your issue and mine, if widespread—should be a catastrophic failure for Microsoft, and one you'd think they'd find and resolve quickly.
It that's the case, I think it is easier to just reinstall Windows 11. Or he can try to do an in-place upgrade/repair to fix Windows without reinstalling all the applications again. For a new installation he has to boot with the Windows 11 USB and start Setup from there. To upgrade he must run Setup inside Windows.
 

My Computers My Computers

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Pro 23H2 (5699), 25H2 (8737)Mobile DualCore Intel Core 2 Duo T7250, 2000 MHz4GBMobile Intel(R) GMA 4500M (Mobile 4 series)
    OS
    Windows 11 Pro 23H2 (5699), 25H2 (8737)
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Extensa 5630EZ
    CPU
    Mobile DualCore Intel Core 2 Duo T7250, 2000 MHz
    Motherboard
    Acer Extensa 5630
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Mobile Intel(R) GMA 4500M (Mobile 4 series)
    Sound Card
    Realtek ALC268 @ Intel 82801IB ICH9 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB SATA Device (250 GB, SATA-III)
    Internet Speed
    VDSL 50 Mbps
    Browser
    MICROSOFT EDGE
    Antivirus
    WINDOWS DEFENDER
    Other Info
    Legacy MBR installation, no TPM, no Secure Boot, no WDDM 2.0 graphics drivers, no SSE4.2, cannot get more unsupported ;) This is only my test laptop. I had installed Windows 11 here before upgrading my main PC. For my main PC I use everyday see my 2nd system specs.
  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Pro v25H2 (build 26200.8737)Intel Core-i7 3770 3.40GHz s1155 (3rd generat...2x Kingston Hyper-X Blu 8GB DDR3-1600GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3050 WINDFORCE OC V2 6GB...
    Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro v25H2 (build 26200.8737)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom-built PC
    CPU
    Intel Core-i7 3770 3.40GHz s1155 (3rd generation)
    Motherboard
    Asus P8H61 s1155 ATX
    Memory
    2x Kingston Hyper-X Blu 8GB DDR3-1600
    Graphics card(s)
    GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3050 WINDFORCE OC V2 6GB (GV-N3050WF2OCV2-6GD)
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD audio (ALC887)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Sony Bravia KDL-19L4000 19" LCD TV via VGA
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900 32-bit 60Hz
    Hard Drives
    WD Blue SA510 2.5 1000GB SSD as system disk, Western Digital Caviar Purple 4TB SATA III (WD40PURZ) as second
    PSU
    Thermaltake Litepower RGB 550W Full Wired
    Case
    SUPERCASE MIDI-TOWER
    Cooling
    Deepcool Gamma Archer CPU cooler, 1x 8cm fan at the back
    Keyboard
    Mitsumi 101-key PS/2
    Mouse
    Sunnyline OptiEye PS/2
    Internet Speed
    100Mbps
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox
    Antivirus
    Microsoft Windows Defender
    Other Info
    Legacy BIOS (MBR) installation, no TPM, no Secure Boot, WDDM 3.0 graphics drivers, WEI score 7.4
Since I'm not in a rush, I'll just do the testing on a clean SSD (wipe before each test install) until I hit on the correct combination. I'll report back when I have success or additional information.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 10 19043.1149 x64
OS
Windows 10 19043.1149 x64

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