Microsoft releases a fix for non-working apps on Windows 10

Alternative take on Windows 11s deafult wallpaper

It is not just Windows 11 version 24H2 that has a new known issue causing Task Manager to show the wrong number of running apps and processes. Windows 10 version 22H2 has also been confirmed to have a bug in the recent updates. However, this time, it is a bit more serious.

Microsoft has acknowledged that after installing KB5043131, one of Windows 10's recent non-security updates (released in September), users might have problems with launching apps from non-admin accounts. Microsoft says affected apps include Quick Assist, Microsoft Teams, Windows Narrator, and more. In fact, any app with UIAccess set to "true" will fail upon launch from a non-admin profile.

After installing the September 2024 preview update (KB5043131), released September 24, 2024 or later, you might observe that apps such as Quick Assist, Microsoft Teams, Windows Narrator, etc might fail to start if you are a non-admin user. You might experience this issue on any app that sets UIAccess=true while trying to run the app as a non-admin user. The uiAccess=true attribute in an application's manifest file is used to request that the application be granted higher privileges. Apps using this attribute launch from a secure path, such as :

%ProgramFiles% (including subdirectories)

%ProgramFiles(x86)% (including subdirectories for 64-bit versions of Windows)

%systemroot%\system32

%systemroot%\syswow64 (for 64-bit versions of Windows)

The bug affects systems with client versions of Windows 10 version 22H2. To mitigate the problem, Microsoft applied the trusty Known Issue Rollback feature, which can undo problematic update bits without requiring any action from the end user. However, the workaround might take up to 24 hours to propagate, so the best course of action is to restart your system if it cannot launch certain applications.

As for managed devices, IT admins have to apply a special policy to undo changes that cause apps to break with recent updates. The policy is available for download via this link. A permanent solution will be available in a future update.