PowerToys Run crashes on start

[mjmenger]

Microsoft PowerToys version

0.64.1

Installation method

GitHub

Running as admin

Yes

Area(s) with issue?

PowerToys Run

Steps to reproduce

I looked at issue 15341, but the behavior they're seeing is different from my issue.

1. Start PowerToys either manually or at boot
2. PowerToys.Run briefly starts and then disappears, as seen in the Windows Task Manager
   PowerToysReport_2022-11-23-13-02-12.zip

✔️ Expected Behavior

For PowerToys to start and for PowerToys Run to respond to the activation shortcut.

❌ Actual Behavior

PowerToys Run is unavailable, though other PowerToys features still work.

Other Software

No response

[mjmenger]

When I tried enabling only the programs plugin and restarting PowerToys, PowerToys.Run started and remained running. I then discretely enabled each of the plugins in an attempt to localize a plugin that may have challenges on my system. However, PowerToys.Run did not crash, and all plugins worked as expected. When restarting PowerToys, PowerToys.Run briefly started and crashed again.

[jaimecbernardo]

Indeed it looks like it is crashing quite a bit, according to the event viewer logs here.
Something that might help understanding which plugin is causing this might be to start with all plugins disabled, enable a plugin and restart PowerToys and so on, enabling the plugins one by one until it's identified.

Something else that might help here would be a crash dump.
One way of achieving this would be by creating an entry in the Registry Editor (regedit.msc), for Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps\PowerToys.PowerLauncher.exe , according to the instructions in https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/wer/collecting-user-mode-dumps

It should look something like this in the end (but for PowerLauncher):

After that, please replicate the bug, navigate to $LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps in the File Explorer and upload the zipped PowerToys.PowerLauncher.exe.*.dmp file to a GitHub comment.

/needinfo

[mjmenger]

@jaimecbernardo When I looked at the CrashDumps directory I noticed several PowerToys.PowerLauncher.exe.xxxxx.dmp files. Here is the latest. PowerToys.PowerLauncher.exe.3888.zip

[sosssego]

Hi @mjmenger, I have analyzed the crash dump, but the information did not take me to a solution.

I found some complaints about the same exception outside of PowerToys around the time frame, but it may not be related.
Would you have other dumps?
Did it happen again recently?

[mjmenger]

PowerToys.PowerLauncher.exe.zip

Here are the dumps of yesterday's crashes while I tried to start it. I have taken to watching PowerToys.Run in the task manager and restarting Run in the PowerToys settings until it doesn't crash. It usually takes between five and ten attempts.

Thanks very much for trying to fix this.

[gokcekantarci]

When I tried enabling only the programs plugin and restarting PowerToys, PowerToys.Run started and remained running. I then discretely enabled each of the plugins in an attempt to localize a plugin that may have challenges on my system. However, PowerToys.Run did not crash, and all plugins worked as expected. When restarting PowerToys, PowerToys.Run briefly started and crashed again.

Hi,

I tried these steps about 10 times. But I couldn't reproduce crash. It's been a while since issue was opened. Crash may be fixed. Can you check again please with v0.71?

/needinfo

[mjmenger]

Hello, and Sorry for the radio silence.

I'm running 0.71.0, and I'm still experiencing the crash. I'll attach a crash dump here from
PowerToys.PowerLauncher.exe.13400.zip
yesterday.

[jaimecbernardo]

We've added a fix for this behavior, which will be released on PowerToys 0.74

[jaimecbernardo]

This has been worked on for the 0.74.0 release. Please update PowerToys to the latest version. 😉
https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases