November Windows 10 Patches Causing File Explorer Issues with App Volumes

[Jeremy Lippert]

Based on not seeing any other posts out for this, wondering if maybe we are just having issues but since patching our Windows 10 images to November Microsoft patches we are seeing weird File Explorer UI issues and high CPU issues with File Explorer whenever App Volumes packages are attached. We don't see the behavior when the App Volumes service is disabled, or you remove any entitlements for App Volumes packages. Don't see the behavior on October patch level, just November. Two separate Windows 10 images are seeing the behavior. With our EDR agent uninstalled, also still seeing the behavior. We are running Horizon Cloud next-gen with the latest HAI version.

We do have an Omnissa ticket it for it currently though. Initial stages. Just wondering if anyone else out there seeing this behavior.

 

Weird UI issues:

 

High CPU when File Explorer is frozen or seeing the UI issues:

 

[Jubish Jose]

I have seen this issue on next-gen using Windows 11 VMs, but it was not specific to November updates. Users were seeing a frozen file explorer, sometimes while logging in, and sometimes when they click on the OneDrive folder in the file explorer. We were not using App Volumes extensively anyways so we altogether stopped using it. 

[Jeremy Lippert]

17 hours ago, Jubish Jose said:

I have seen this issue on next-gen using Windows 11 VMs, but it was not specific to November updates. Users were seeing a frozen file explorer, sometimes while logging in, and sometimes when they click on the OneDrive folder in the file explorer. We were not using App Volumes extensively anyways so we altogether stopped using it. 

Yeah, we ran into that just a few weeks ago while building a new Windows 11 image and was doing initial testing. It's an issue with the App Volumes agent latest version and supposed to be fixed in the next version out next month. Workaround was:

On Image: Create Custom folder at %SVAgent%\Config and then create file Snapvol.cfg in the Config directory and add:
exclude_registry=\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\SyncRootManager

in the snapvol.cfg

That fixed the OneDrive/Explorer issues for us on Windows 11.

The symptoms were sort of different, but we are going to test for giggles to see if it's still that.

[Jeremy Lippert]

After some testing, this is what we seem to be running into on our Windows 10 images post November updates. Seems pretty much fine after doing this workaround for the App Volumes agent (Latest HAI installer on Horizon Cloud next-gen). Per Omnissa support, the permanent fix comes on the next AV agent update in December.

3 hours ago, Jeremy Lippert said:

Yeah, we ran into that just a few weeks ago while building a new Windows 11 image and was doing initial testing. It's an issue with the App Volumes agent latest version and supposed to be fixed in the next version out next month. Workaround was:

On Image: Create Custom folder at %SVAgent%\Config and then create file Snapvol.cfg in the Config directory and add:
exclude_registry=\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\SyncRootManager

in the snapvol.cfg

That fixed the OneDrive/Explorer issues for us on Windows 11.

The symptoms were sort of different, but we are going to test for giggles to see if it's still that.

 

[hans straat]

Did a checkup right away on our acceptance farm. Fireup a on-demand appstack but no big cpu usage luckely. But thanks for posting cause others could have this issue.

[Jeremy Lippert]

Successfully have this workaround now in production on our Windows 10 image and rolled out to all our pools. I still have my ticket open with Omnissa support and gave them a full memory dump for an RCA and perm fix (assuming next AV agent coming in December like they told me for Windows 11 with pretty much the same issue).

[SD2024]

I am having this same issue as well. Not sure how I haven't come across this post yet. Thanks for sharing!

[SD2024]

On 11/19/2024 at 12:20 PM, Jeremy Lippert said:

After some testing, this is what we seem to be running into on our Windows 10 images post November updates. Seems pretty much fine after doing this workaround for the App Volumes agent (Latest HAI installer on Horizon Cloud next-gen). Per Omnissa support, the permanent fix comes on the next AV agent update in December.

 

Are you adding that .cfg file to %SVAgent%\Config? or are you creating another folder inside of /config/ and then adding the .cfg file?

[Jeremy Lippert]

3 minutes ago, SD2024 said:

Are you adding that .cfg file to %SVAgent%\Config? or are you creating another folder inside of /config/ and then adding the .cfg file?

Yep sorry about that, my instructions aren’t exactly correct, I apologize.

1. On your image, Create a folder named Custom in the %SVAgent%\Config directory.

2. In the %SVAgent%\Config\Custom directory create a file named snapvol.cfg

3. In snapvol.cfg add the line: exclude_registry=\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\SyncRootManager

4. Save snapvol.cfg

5. Deploy this image and test

[SD2024]

1 hour ago, Jeremy Lippert said:

Yep sorry about that, my instructions aren’t exactly correct, I apologize.

1. On your image, Create a folder named Custom in the %SVAgent%\Config directory.

2. In the %SVAgent%\Config\Custom directory create a file named snapvol.cfg

3. In snapvol.cfg add the line: exclude_registry=\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\SyncRootManager

4. Save snapvol.cfg

5. Deploy this image and test

Great, thank you for the clarification. I am on 2312.1 and this workaround appears to be working. Thanks for the help. I also have a ticket open, and they said they weren't aware of any file explorer issues at first but then I linked them back to this post. A permanent fix would be great. Fingers crossed.