Coconut Monkey Cornerclub

[Charagma]

I checked properties on My Computer in File Explorer and it just sat there. Eventually, Windows killed it. Event Viewer has:
The program SystemSettings.exe version 10.0.26100.4652 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed.

I updated as soon as the install finished but just got a security update. I had to reboot because the command prompt was taking a long time to start up, but now I can't get into any Settings system!?

Edit: Completely shut down my PC and started it up again. That fixed it. Windows version is 24H2. Windows Update isn't interested in giving me anything newer.

Ugh, every time I boot up it says I need to turn on the firewall. Gotta mess with that next.

Just switch off the firewall notifications in firewall settings. I use my router firewall, have windows firewall switched off as well.

Yeah, I had a cumulative update two days ago and the usual defender update but no Win11 25h2 yet. Apparently, it is out but being rolled out bit by bit to supported systems. Still do not know if my system is supported.

 

[Zloth]

You would think they would want it out there and ready as the wave of holdouts updates to Win 11.

The Firewall thing was nasty! I tracked down in Event Viewer that the system was trying to start it and getting a 'bad parameter' error. There isn't a lot of help on that. There's one guy saying here's a whole hive of registry values to put in, do these and all will be well. Hmm. I made a restore point and... chickened out. If it was text and I could see exactly what was being switched, then I might risk it, but changing a lot of registry information blind? Yeah, the batch file does back up the hives it's changing, but that's too much.

Let's try doing a restore. Surely Windows made one after installing, right? I restarted with shift pressed and went to look. Uhhh, no, but when I first started Windows 11 it complained about a driver for the lights in my case. When I tried to uninstall that (which didn't work) it made a restore point. The only other one is the one I just made before chickening out, there aren't any from Windows 10 days.

OK, so I did the earliest restore point, Windows started up, and it complained about the case lights driver again. Perfect, just as it should be doing. Check the Windows Defender Firewall service and... stuck in "stopping" state. It must have been screwed up right away. Ar.... wait, why is my desktop so clean? OMG, almost all the files and shortcuts are gone, including some very important ones! OK, I saved the most important ones out in cloud storage and... the password the browser has saved is wrong!? What the frakkin'... <MUCH cussing >

Wait, my restore point before chickening out!! Do restores wipe out newer restore points??? Shift-restart and... no they don't! This restore didn't help the firewall issue anyway, let's restore back to the chicken! That worked. Blood pressure restored. Temporarily.

Finally, I exported my registry (twice), cranked my blood pressure back up, and tried the registry hives. Reboot and they worked! If this was an evil hacker, he's also the only person who knows how to fix this issue. Still, I quickly followed up by telling Windows to reset all firewall settings. I'll have to give a few programs permission to go through the firewall again, but no biggy. I was even able to start Elden Ring and its 'easy anti-cheat' with no issue.

P.S. And I just made another restore point.

P.P.S. I swear I can hear Brian saying something about disk image backups....

P.P.P.S. Web blog with the hive, on the off chance anyone else hits this: https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/windows-firewall-error-0x6d9-no-endpoints/