SOLVED Windows 10 desktop and launcher crashes, then restarts, every few seconds

[Ken Birman]

I upgraded successfully to Windows 10 a few days ago, on my Dell Precision M6800 PC. The machine is new, lots of memory etc.

Last night I shut it down and this morning, I am finding that the desktop launcher is crashing, then restarting itself, every 15 seconds or so. Barely gives me time to get it to do one command before it crashes.

Fortunately, I was able to launch explorer because they pin it to the bottom taskbar, and from explorer, I can ask this question. Can anyone help me diagnose the cause? (I'll sit and watch this thread for a little while). Thanks!

I'm a fairly sophisticated Windows user; feel free to be rather technical. On the other hand I only have a day and a half experience with Windows 10.

 

[remostalin]

SFC /SCANNOW (Administrator)

 

[Ken Birman]

SFC /SCANNOW (Administrator)

I don't know what you are saying. Keep in mind that at this point all I can do is use explorer from this browser window. The desktop launcher is flashing like crazy and basically rebooting in a fraction of a second.

Where do I run SFC /SCANNOW from? Is there a safe-boot mode?

I'm not familiar with Windows 10; I was using Windows 8.1 Pro, so this is a new system for me. And right now I can access it only via this window (and my ipad...)

 

[Ken Birman]

OK, I may have stabilized things. I noticed that the "iCloud update service" was running and complaining. Killed it from the task manager. And now the desktop launcher has calmed down. So I suspect I should disable this iCloud thing, which doesn't work well in any case.

 

[Ken Birman]

OK, I've tracked this down (on my own; your suggestion was not helpful).

The issue is the iCloud photo update service. This service was trying to sync with my iPad, but Windows 10 has the folder it uses marked as read-only for it, and hence the service crashed. Somehow this occurred in a way that takes down the desktop launcher too.

I found it necessary to uninstall iCloud to really stabilize my system. You can kill the iCloud photo update service from the task manager (accessed via cntrl-alt-del) and can kill it there, but then the next time you reboot it will try and start up again. So until Apple fixes this bug, I can't run that service. Which in my case is no big deal. Another option is probably to give it permission to access the photo folder and music folders it needs to sync against. I'm not sure which those are, but presumably that would fix the instability.

And obviously Windows should fix the launcher to not be so unstable when one of these services is unstable...

 

[remostalin]

I don't know what you are saying. Keep in mind that at this point all I can do is use explorer from this browser window. The desktop launcher is flashing like crazy and basically rebooting in a fraction of a second.

Where do I run SFC /SCANNOW from? Is there a safe-boot mode?

I'm not familiar with Windows 10; I was using Windows 8.1 Pro, so this is a new system for me. And right now I can access it only via this window (and my ipad...)

open run command prompt with administrator

in command prompt type SFC /SCANNOW then press enter wait to complted then restart

 

[Shintaro]

Good job Ken, you seemed to have fixed the problem.

Apple says that Windows 10 is not supported HERE.

• Microsoft Windows 7, 8, or 8.1. Windows 10 currently isn't supported with iCloud for Windows.

You didn't mention if the Windows shortcut keys worked? Win key + R? Will that open a Run dialog box? If it does can you run the command?

 

[John Hobson]

OK, I've tracked this down (on my own; your suggestion was not helpful).

The issue is the iCloud photo update service. This service was trying to sync with my iPad, but Windows 10 has the folder it uses marked as read-only for it, and hence the service crashed. Somehow this occurred in a way that takes down the desktop launcher too.

I found it necessary to uninstall iCloud to really stabilize my system. You can kill the iCloud photo update service from the task manager (accessed via cntrl-alt-del) and can kill it there, but then the next time you reboot it will try and start up again. So until Apple fixes this bug, I can't run that service. Which in my case is no big deal. Another option is probably to give it permission to access the photo folder and music folders it needs to sync against. I'm not sure which those are, but presumably that would fix the instability.

And obviously Windows should fix the launcher to not be so unstable when one of these services is unstable...

You're a star I was having the same problem thanks for the solution