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About two weeks ago I upgraded Windows 10 to 11. For the most part it's fine, but a hideous issue seems to occur when using the secure desktop.

This applies to certain applications like VeraCrypt and KeePass, which make use of the secure desktop feature to obtain a secret password or key in a way to prevent the input being sniffed/stolen by other programs. (Apparently) It also applies to accessing the UI of service processes that need desktop interaction, though this is a very rare use case for me outside of servers.

After completing this input, be it via OK or Cancel, the secure desktop does not seem to close back to my main desktop. This is seemingly random -- sometimes it works just fine. Symptoms are a completely blank grey screen besides mouse cursor and inability to reach any open application, even via ALT+TAB. If I happened to have music playing at the time I can still hear it playing, and media buttons on my keyboard and bluetooth headset interact with the program playing media.

Its possible to open Task Manager via CTRL+SHIFT+ESC or via the CTRL+ALT+DEL security UI. At this point I tried terminating processes to find out what could be causing the secure desktop to not sod off including the source application that requested them (such as VeraCrypt and KeePass).

After that I tried terminating Desktop Window Manager (DWM). This made a difference in that the background momentarily went black but then changed to my gold-ish colour of choice for the Windows UI (via Personalisation settings). Seemingly made some progress I proceeded to try terminating both DWM and Explorer. This instead made the background black until Explorer is started again, which turns the background to my gold-ish preference.

Interestingly whilst Task Manager is open starting certain new tasks to run with administrative privileges do sometimes open in a way I can interact with them as normal. (Command Prompt and SysInternals Process Explorer being two of them.) Nothing run at standard user level is usable though.

Currently out of options here I tried Switch User via CTRL+ALT+DEL. This took me back to the Windows login UI normally and I could login as another user and use the computer without issue. I can even use Task Manager from the other user to send my original user a message, which appears fine. Switching back to my original user did not make any progress though.

At this point the only option is to completely log out of my original user. This can be a big problem because it does not provide any opportunity to save any work in progress, as programs are just cut off ASAP to log out of Windows. Logging in again brings me back to a working desktop without need to reboot the PC entirely.

I've tried the usual check for updates, check for viruses, and SFC, however none have made a difference. For VeraCrypt and KeePass I can at least turn off their option to acquire input via a secure desktop but this seems like a bit of a sloppy "leaving the key under the mat" workaround as my input is (apparently) open to theft by other programs.

Submitted this to Microsoft's Feedback Hub too though I doubt anything will come of that: https://aka.ms/AAi8kqg

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30/Aug/2024: This has still been a problem for 22H2 and 23H2.

Adambean
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1 Answers1

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Same observation for me after Windows 11 upgraded to 22H2. Very annoying, because VeraCrypt's secure desktop is now almost unusable, as it hangs on a white screen after the 2nd/3rd mounting prompt.

To replicate the issue just keep entering the wrong password and you should soon hit the issue. Or just try mounting 3+ containers at the same time.

The container may mount successfully, and I can open up the Task Manager and start and explorer process and browse the mounted container, but I'm unable to interact with any other programs on my machine anymore until I forcefully log off.

It feels like the remote desktop process doesn't exit properly after mounting. I was trying to find it in the Task Manager and terminate it manually, but so far without luck. Anyone knows what process it is?

I've also tried running it in Windows 7 compatibility mode but same issue. One other thing I've noticed is double-clicking a mounted container in the main menu doesn't open up Explorer with that container anymore.

user559447
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