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Solved Windows 10 Crash when installing almost anything

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GuezMan

PCHF Member
Oct 17, 2021
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So to elaborate a little bit, its been sort of a new issue on my pc that whenever I install software, games and what have you Windows freaks out and crashes when the install starts. Computer restarts itself, I reboot the download and everything is hunky dory again. I for a while ignored this issue cause it felt sort of infrequent, but its become quite the nuisance. I can't think of any reason or find any online as to why this is happening. So if there are any ideas out there it would be much appreciated.
 
1. Copy any dmp files from C:\Windows\Minidump onto the desktop.
2. Select all of them, right-click on one, and click on Send To> New Compressed (zipped) Folder.
3. Upload the zip folder using the Attach button, bottom left of the dialogue input box

If the computer is a desktop can you post the brand and model name or number of the power supply (PSU).

Download then run Speccy (free) and post the resultant url for us, details here, this will provide us with information about your computer hardware + any software that you have installed that may explain the present issue/s.

To publish a Speccy profile to the Web:

In Speccy, click File, and then click Publish Snapshot.

In the Publish Snapshot dialog box, click Yes to enable Speccy to proceed.

Speccy publishes the profile and displays a second Publish Snapshot. You can open the URL in your default browser, copy it to the clipboard, or close the dialog box.
 
So the computer is basically made up of a notebook motherboard in a small form factor case, no wonder you are having problems with it.

Looking at your crash dmps first of all, have you got any more since you uploaded the other two, if not, just let us know, if yes, upload them using the same method as before.

The cause of both of the previous was the same two things, Launcher.exe and the fact that your external USB HDD is formatted in exFAT.

Do you happen to know what Launcher.exe is.

Who and why was the external HDD formatted in exFAT.
 
So the computer is basically made up of a notebook motherboard in a small form factor case, no wonder you are having problems with it.

Looking at your crash dmps first of all, have you got any more since you uploaded the other two, if not, just let us know, if yes, upload them using the same method as before.

The cause of both of the previous was the same two things, Launcher.exe and the fact that your external USB HDD is formatted in exFAT.

Do you happen to know what Launcher.exe is.

Who and why was the external HDD formatted in exFAT.
I am not sure what launcher.exe is, my guess is that its from steam and it runs when it installs a game. As for the external SSD I don't know, I had bought it to store more games given that my base hard drive was small to begin with.
 
Looking at your crash dmps first of all, have you got any more since you uploaded the other two, if not, just let us know, if yes, upload them using the same method as before.

Any feedback on the above.

Launcher.exe is listed as an undesirable program at BC here

Do you have any non legit software/games on this computer or the attached USB SSD.

Got a couple of things for you to do but need to wait on feedback regarding the above first as the presence of Launcher.exe which you know nothing about could mean that your computer is infected with malware, if the case you will need to get the computer cleaned up by a malware removal expert.
 
Any feedback on the above.

Launcher.exe is listed as an undesirable program at BC here

Do you have any non legit software/games on this computer or the attached USB SSD.

Got a couple of things for you to do but need to wait on feedback regarding the above first as the presence of Launcher.exe which you know nothing about could mean that your computer is infected with malware, if the case you will need to get the computer cleaned up by a malware removal expert.
I haven't gotten any new ones as of yet. As for unofficial games, the only one that comes to mind is an emulator+BOTW. I've been using Norton as an AV and it didn't flag it when I did do the install process for that. Ran a full system scan and Norton came up with nothing. If Norton is crap I'll look into getting something else.
 
As for unofficial games, the only one that comes to mind is an emulator+BOTW.

Emulators are predominantly used to run pirated software so are you saying that BOTW is pirated, that would explain the presence of Launcher.exe.

We are not allowed to describe Norton in such a way for legal reasons but fwiw you do not need it as Windows Defender and Firewall are all that most users need.
 
Emulators are predominantly used to run pirated software so are you saying that BOTW is pirated, that would explain the presence of Launcher.exe.

We are not allowed to describe Norton in such a way for legal reasons but fwiw you do not need it as Windows Defender and Firewall are all that most users need.
Understood. What do you suggest?
 
For us to be able to continue to help you the game must go and if you still have the same issue once it has gone your machine will need to be checked for malware.

Get rid of the game then do the below;

Post an Autoruns log for us, see here

1: Extract the Autoruns Zip file contents to a folder.

2: Double-click the "Autoruns.exe".

3: Click on the "Hide Signed Microsoft and Windows Entries” option.

4: Go to File then to Export As or Save in some versions.

5: Save AutoRuns.txt file to known location like your Desktop > when you click on File > Save you will then get the option to Save as type, click the drop down tab, change it to Text and then click the Save button.

6: Attach to your next reply.



Tutorial here
 
Alright, popped the emulator and the game. Also found another unofficial game so I took that out too. Ran an install on one of my steam games to see if there was still an issue and there were no problems. So we might be good here. Here is that .txt you asked for as well. Let me know if there is anything else.
 

Attachments

  • BENDESKTOP.txt
    595.5 KB · Views: 5
Autoruns looks clean and being that you are no longer having the issue with Steam removing the undesirable programs does appear to be what was required.

We will leave your thread open for a day or two before considering the issue/s resolved.
 
It would help if you told us what the computer was being used for at the time of the crash.

Steam was the process that crashed so can I ask if at the time of the crash were you by any chance loading or playing a game stored on the external USB SSD.
 
I had just launched a game or it updated one from my external drive.

Thought as much as the cause of the crash was the external drive being formatted to exFat.

Couple of suggestions, if not done already sync the drive with Windows 10 or as a last resort format the drive to NTFS.

I only use onedrive so can only suggest a guide for you, see here
 
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