KB5072911: Explorer, the Start menu, and other XAML-dependent apps might not start or close unexpectedly on some enterprise devices

Summary

After provisioning a PC with a Windows 11, version 24H2 or a Windows 11, version 25H2 monthly cumulative update released on or after July 2025 (such as KB5062553 or KB5065789), XAML-dependent modern apps such as Explorer, the Start menu, SystemSettings, Taskbar and Windows Search might experience difficulties. This issue primarily affects a limited number of enterprise or managed environments and is very unlikely to occur on personal devices used by individuals.

This might occur when Windows updates are installed prior to: 

• First time user logon to persisted OS installation.

• All user logons to a non-persistent OS installation such as a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) or equivalent as application packages must be installed each logon in such scenarios.

Common scenarios 

Some unexpected behaviors might appear in the following scenarios: 

• XAML components
  
  ​​​​​​​These issues typically occur after updates to built-in dependency packages hosting XAML components, such as the following:

  • MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_cw5n1h2txyewy

  • Microsoft.UI.Xaml.CBS_8wekyb3d8bbwe

  • MicrosoftWindows.Client.Core_cw5n1h2txyewy

• Shell components

  For some enterprise or virtualized environments, the following components may not start and might show an error: 

  Binary	Enterprise user experience or failure signature
  Explorer.exe	End-users log on to a black screen The Windows Start menu fails to open Explorer crashes on start Taskbar fails to appear / render / display on the Windows desktop
  StartMenuExperienceHost	The Start menu fails to open, often displaying a critical error message
  shellhost.exe	ShellHost.exe crashes
  XAML-dependent apps	Apps fail to start or crash on startup   The Consent.exe, the binary for the User Account Control UI System settings. Start > Settings > System silently fails to open Application crash when initializing XAML views Other XAML island views fail to initialize

Cause

The applications have a dependency on XAML packages that are not registering in time after installing Windows updates.

Resolution

​​​​​​​We are working on a resolution and will update this article as more information becomes available.

Workarounds

Manual registration of the missing packages 

IT administrators managing enterprise or virtualized environments should register the missing packages in the user session and restart SiHost to allow Immersive Shell and related components to pick them up. To do this, run the following commands to register each of the missing packages:

Run this sample PowerShell script on non-persistent OS installations

For non-persistent environments, a logon script approach remains the best option for IT administrators. Create a batch file wrapper to execute synchronously before Explorer launches.

Note This approach ensures the script runs synchronously, effectively blocking explorer.exe from launching prematurely until the required packages are fully provisioned.