Recommended Posts

So I'm having a very weird issue in the Release Preview that I never had on the Consumer Preview. This is running natively on my laptop (all specs here).

Basically, almost at random but usually during downloads/installations, the operating system freezes program-by-program, starting with the taskbar. It's not the kind of freezing that turns white and gives the options to 'End Task,' but one where it seems more like an image overlay. Usually you can also tell by the frozen cursor animation, but the cursor can still be moved (for a time. Usually the last thing to go is the active application or the desktop (as in the icon selection box or the context menu).

I have attempted to look through Event Viewer, but other than the forced shutdown I have to perform to fix the issue, there doesn't seem to be anything else of use.

For one run I had Task Manager running on my secondary monitor, but on the freeze there was no unusual spike in any of the sections.

At first I thought it was a graphics driver issue, so I updated both the Intel and NVIDIA graphics drivers. This has not improved the issue.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1081347-annoying-freezing-issue/
Share on other sites

I've seen this on my machine in pre-RT and know others with the same issue. As far as I can tell, it's network I/O related. Something is jamming up, bringing the whole system down with it. (The network is used to communicate locally, too.)

The best thing you can do to help is:

  1. Enable kernel memory crash dumps (Start Search 'Advanced System Settings', click Settings under Startup/Recovery, last dropdown)
  2. Enable CrashOnCtrlScroll (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971284)
  3. When the hang occurs, hit Right-Ctrl + Scroll + Scroll to crash the system and create a memory.dmp
  4. When asked to report issue, say No
  5. Fish out the memory.dmp in \Windows folder and send it to me. (Ping me on Twitter/Email)

Issue fixed, dumps no longer required.

Rafael, I am more than willing to help out, but am unsure how exactly to enable CrashOnCtrlScroll (plus my laptop doesn't have a visible Scroll Lock button). Think you could point me in the right direction?

Edit: Found the registry change. Rebooting now. Will email you as soon as I have the dump.

For anyone that needs a temporary fix, disabling all the network adapters seems to do the trick. Major obvious downside though...

And Rafael, as I sent over Twitter, I had no luck actually getting the log file. :(

I'm also having freezing issues with the Release Preview running natively on my laptop (a Dell Studio XPS 13 with the hard drive replaced with an SSD), but in my case the entire system freezes (including the cursor) and I'm forced to do a hard reset. The hard drive activity light stays off when the system has frozen.

I tried isolating the issue without success. Installing Nvidia's latest Windows 8 (CP) drivers didn't help, and I also tried using the default Microsoft WDDM 1.2 drivers, the Nvidia's latest Windows 7 drivers and the older drivers from Dell's website. Turning off the wireless network adapter had no effect. Freezing tended to occur when installing programs but also when simply browsing the internet, and it seemed to be unrelated to high CPU usage (I was able to run a CPU stress test without problems). Unfortunately the event log was clean, which makes it a bit difficult to track down possible causes.

For now I've reinstalled Windows 7 and everything seems to be fine, which I hope suggests it's not a hardware issue. I guess it's still pre-release software for a reason.

I'm also having freezing issues with the Release Preview running natively on my laptop (a Dell Studio XPS 13 with the hard drive replaced with an SSD), but in my case the entire system freezes (including the cursor) and I'm forced to do a hard reset. The hard drive activity light stays off when the system has frozen.

I tried isolating the issue without success. Installing Nvidia's latest Windows 8 (CP) drivers didn't help, and I also tried using the default Microsoft WDDM 1.2 drivers, the Nvidia's latest Windows 7 drivers and the older drivers from Dell's website. Turning off the wireless network adapter had no effect. Freezing tended to occur when installing programs but also when simply browsing the internet, and it seemed to be unrelated to high CPU usage (I was able to run a CPU stress test without problems). Unfortunately the event log was clean, which makes it a bit difficult to track down possible causes.

For now I've reinstalled Windows 7 and everything seems to be fine, which I hope suggests it's not a hardware issue. I guess it's still pre-release software for a reason.

In that case I would have advised installing all the original Dell provided drivers from their support website - I had something similar on my Dell Studio XPS 16, and after I'd installed all the old default drivers and custom Dell stuff it seems to be working stable for now. I couldn't tell you which driver / install sorted it though :p

In that case I would have advised installing all the original Dell provided drivers from their support website - I had something similar on my Dell Studio XPS 16, and after I'd installed all the old default drivers and custom Dell stuff it seems to be working stable for now. I couldn't tell you which driver / install sorted it though :p

I'll keep that in mind for next time, but I think I might just wait until RTM and hope that it's more stable by then. I had installed several drivers from Dell's website (from memory: the chipset driver, audio driver, video driver, card reader driver, wireless network adapter driver and touchpad driver) and I was still experiencing the same issue.

I can't edit my previous reply, but it'll be helpful if folks instead send me a Complete memory dump as opposed to Kernel memory dump. Be aware this may contain PII but I think I've established I'm pretty trustworthy at this point. (Besides, finding your data in a multi-gigabyte dump isn't fun or easy.)

I am also experiencing the same issue with an HP probook 4350s. Now that you guys mention it, it does seem to happen when I am browsing with chrome. I'm using IE 10 for a while to see if this helps.

Chris123NT, what is this "green Ethernet" setting you speak of on your NIC? Is it some sort of power saving feature?

I too have this problem, a few times every day everything just starts freezing up and I'm forced to shut off my laptop using the powerbutton.

If it is any help, in the event viewer I see a lot of errors with this message:

"The machine-default permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID

{9BA05972-F6A8-11CF-A442-00A0C90A8F39}"

I can also report the same issue, i suspected Nvidia drivers, as my lockups happen when multimedia or a game is running... but very random though! first lockup happened after 5 hours of Diablo3 .... then more frequent after that. Was running pretty well for a couple of days before the lockups started. Got irritated and went back to Win7 .... once Nvidia releases new drivers, ill be having another go!

I can also report the same issue, i suspected Nvidia drivers, as my lockups happen when multimedia or a game is running... but very random though! first lockup happened after 5 hours of Diablo3 .... then more frequent after that. Was running pretty well for a couple of days before the lockups started. Got irritated and went back to Win7 .... once Nvidia releases new drivers, ill be having another go!

From the amount of people with this problem (including me) I doubt it's Nvidia drivers. As I don't have Nvidia on mine.

I am also experiencing the same issue with an HP probook 4350s. Now that you guys mention it, it does seem to happen when I am browsing with chrome. I'm using IE 10 for a while to see if this helps.

Chris123NT, what is this "green Ethernet" setting you speak of on your NIC? Is it some sort of power saving feature?

Go to Device manager, expand the network adapters category, right click your nic and go to properties, under the advanced tab look for something that says either "Green Ethernet" or "Energy Efficient Ethernet". Set it to disabled and apply it.

3 days and 12 hours since I changed that setting and still no freezes *knocks wood*

Go to Device manager, expand the network adapters category, right click your nic and go to properties, under the advanced tab look for something that says either "Green Ethernet" or "Energy Efficient Ethernet". Set it to disabled and apply it.

3 days and 12 hours since I changed that setting and still no freezes *knocks wood*

Thanks for the input Chris. I didn't see that particular setting for my NIC, but I did see an option for the computer to disable the device to save power. I'll try that setting to see if it makes a difference.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • Go for a Echo Dot or Pop instead. These Echo shows just advertise to you.
    • NetSpeedTray 1.3.3 by Razvan Serea NetSpeedTray is a lightweight, open-source Windows network monitor that shows live upload and download speeds directly on the Taskbar. Designed for efficiency, it quietly sits in the system tray, conserving CPU and battery with dynamic updates. It blends seamlessly with Windows 10/11, adapts to light/dark themes, and auto-positions to avoid overlaps. Features include accurate interface detection, customizable display, optional mini-graph, color coding, granular font and unit control, detailed per-interface history graphs, safe data management, and easy CSV export—bringing the network monitoring Windows forgot. NetSpeedTray key features: Lightweight & Efficient Runs quietly in your system tray without consuming resources. Features a "Dynamic Update Rate" that lowers refresh frequency when the network is idle to save CPU and battery life. Native Look & Feel Blends seamlessly with Windows 10/11 UI. Smart detection for light and dark taskbar themes ensures text is always visible. Intelligent & Adaptive Positioning Automatically finds empty space next to your system tray and shifts to make room for new icons, preventing overlaps. Seamless OS Integration Behaves like a native Windows component. Hides instantly with auto-hiding taskbar Hides when a fullscreen app is active Smart Network Monitoring Accurate by Default: Auto mode identifies your main internet connection and ignores noise from VPNs or virtual adapters. Easy Interface Selection: Switch effortlessly between Auto, All, or Selected network interfaces via intuitive radio buttons. Total Visual Customization Free Move Mode: Unlock and place the widget anywhere on your screen. Optional Mini-Graph: Real-time graph of recent network activity with adjustable opacity. Color Coding: Customize colors and speed thresholds to quickly see network status. Granular Display Control Text & Font: Adjust font family, size, weight, and alignment. Units: Automatic (B/s, KB/s, MB/s) or fixed Mbps display. Precision: Set decimal places and always show them for uniform appearance. Detailed & Intelligent History Graph Smart Scale: Logarithmic scale shows low-level traffic and large spikes clearly. Per-Interface Filtering: View speed history for specific adapters (Wi-Fi, Ethernet, VPN). Safe & Efficient Data Management: Adjustable retention, automatic cleanup, optimized database. Easy Data Export: Export raw data to .csv or save high-quality graphs for reports. NetSpeedTray v1.3.3: The Updater Fix A stabilization release that repairs a critical regression in v1.3.2: the app shipped without OpenSSL, which silently broke every HTTPS request — including the built-in update checker (the "Could not check for updates" error many of you hit). This release restores it, hardens the build so it can't happen again, and fixes a startup crash plus four other reported bugs. Changes: Fixed update checking — Resolved a critical issue that prevented the app from checking for updates ("Could not check for updates"). Fixed startup crash with Auto-Cycling — The app no longer crashes on launch after enabling Cycle display mode. Fixed incorrect network speeds on 10GbE adapters — Multi-gigabit network cards now display speeds correctly instead of being stuck at 0. Improved color coding — Default color is shown when idle, and color/threshold changes now apply immediately without restarting. Fullscreen visibility fix — The widget now correctly stays visible over fullscreen apps when Keep Visible is enabled. Improved AMD Ryzen temperature detection — More reliable CPU temperature monitoring for Ryzen processors. Cleaner upgrades — Installer now removes outdated application files during upgrades, preventing DLL/version conflicts while preserving user settings. Improved stability — Fixed potential DLL loading issues by excluding critical OpenSSL and NumPy components from UPX compression. Better settings window — Scrollbars removed and layout improved for a cleaner experience. Localization improvements — Updated translations and completed missing UI text across all supported languages. More reliable releases — Added regression tests covering recent critical fixes, bringing the test suite to 196 passing tests. [full release notes] Download: NetSpeedTray 1.3.3 | 87.9 MB (Open Source) Download: NetSpeedTray Portable | 101.0 MB View: NetSpeedTray Home Page | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Why Delta Chat is the best decentralized messenger you have probably never tried by Paul Hill There is no shortage of messaging apps out there; we have WhatsApp, Messenger, and Telegram, just to name a few. While Meta has taken steps to incorporate encryption into Messenger and WhatsApp, they still leave a lot to be desired. If you are in the market for a messaging app that promotes security, privacy, and optional anonymity, you'll want to read what I have to say about Delta Chat. For those not familiar with Delta Chat, rather than relying on centralized servers as you do with Facebook Messenger, it relies on email. Essentially, it is a chat interface that feels like a messaging app, but secretly in the background, it is firing off emails. In the past, you used to have to sign in with your email account. When you sent messages to people, it would just be sending encrypted messages to their inbox, which their Delta Chat client would decrypt. When I first learned about Delta Chat, it required users to sign in with an email account, but I was pleasantly surprised upon trying it in 2026 that this is no longer a requirement, or the preferred method was to use the app. Recently, I’ve tried UAD-ng on my old Nokia 3.4 to disable most of the Google apps because the bootloader is locked, and this is the next best option. While finding replacement apps in F-Droid, I came across Delta Chat again, and it has undergone quite a big change since I last used it, with its new chatmail relays, which no longer require you to sign in to your own email account, providing anonymity, and they offer greater security. Android and Desktop Delta Chat apps. Not only does it run on my de-googled phone, but it also works on desktop computers and iOS, making it truly ubiquitous. For me, Delta Chat is a wonderful alternative messenger because it gives you more control. It supports switching between different profiles, which you can set up super quickly; you don’t register a username, you don’t register a password. The only thing you do have is a random string email address on a chatmail relay (which you don’t have to memorize). To maintain access to your profile, you just need to add a second device to your account via QR code or make a backup of your account, which you can restore later. Fail to do these, your account is gone - as it should be if you don’t want to leave accounts that could get hacked later on. My decision to block Google stuff on my Nokia was done for practical reasons; the device sucked when it launched, and it sucks even more now. The nice thing about F-Droid and the apps within is that they’re usually lightweight, free of bloat, and work well on that device. What was inconvenient for me was that it was hard to send messages from that device, say if I wanted to copy a code over to my main phone or send family members a link from that device. That’s when I decided to look at the available chat apps and saw Delta Chat. Another nice thing about Delta Chat is its notifications. Some messaging apps rely on Google’s ecosystem for notification transport on Android; however, with Delta Chat, it can use Google’s solutions if you have Play Services or MicroG installed. Otherwise, it is able to keep a background connection to the chatmail relay server so that you can get notified when you receive a message. As free software, the code of Delta Chat is open for all who want to take it and build upon it. In the future, if the developers of Delta Chat make a catastrophically bad decision and take the app in an undesirable direction, users can take the code and fork the project. This contrasts with closed-source apps from corporations that can take their products in any direction they like. By relying on free software instead of closed-source programs, you actually control your computing. I’ve spoken at length about how running this type of software is like owning your own home rather than renting it. The same applies here; if you use Delta Chat, you don’t need to worry about it going away in the future. Whether it is Telegram, WhatsApp, or Messenger, you are required to register a username and password to use these services. A major flaw in this design is that anyone can try various passwords and potentially break into your account with your complete chat history intact. Sure, there is encryption in Messenger, where you need a second PIN and two-factor authentication in Telegram, but breaches happen all the time. Unlike before, when you used to sign in to your email account to send and receive messages, the primary way to do it now is to create an account on a chatmail relay. The resulting email address is a random string followed by the name of the relay you pick. This means you can start and begin adding contacts Without a username and password, you either need to ensure you have a backup or at least one device running your Delta Chat profile. The primary way to log in on another device is to go to the settings and add a second device. Then, you’ll just scan a QR code with your new device, and it’ll log in to your account and sync all your chat history and contacts. To end users, Delta Chat just looks like any instant messenger; however, it is really sending your messages as encrypted emails to your contact. This is pretty cool from a censorship perspective, as it makes the service more difficult to block. Previously, the main way to use the app was by logging in with email, but nowadays, it’s recommended that you use chatmail relays. Chatmail relays temporarily hold messages in case your device is offline. They are cheap, simple servers that don’t store data as group states. Other information, like your name and avatar, only exists on your device and the devices of those you share your contact information with. The relays are also decentralized and operated by various groups and individuals. It is even possible to set up your own chatmail relay, but most people will want to use one hosted elsewhere. To keep your messages secure, Delta Chat uses a secure subset of the OpenPGP standard that gives you automatic end-to-end encryption. It also uses Secure-Join to exchange encryption setup information through QR-code scanning or invite links. Autocrypt is also used to automatically establish end-to-end encryption between contacts and all members of group chat, but sometime this year Autocrypt v2 will be rolled out, bringing post-quantum resistant encryption and forward secrecy. The Delta Chat FAQ is an interesting read that explains many more details about the app. Credit: Pexels Delta Chat is unique among messaging apps because it is built on email, a technology that’s decades old and isn’t going anywhere soon. What’s more is that email is not centralized either, so it’s far more difficult for any authoritarian regime to disrupt the Delta Chat app. I haven’t spoken too much about features yet, so I will do that now. Delta Chat allows you to do one-on-one chats, group chats, and create channels. It also supports file sharing and making audio and video calls when chatting one-to-one, but it’s not available for group chats right now. At the time of writing, the calling functionality is disabled and can be enabled in Settings > Advanced > Debug Calls. I have used the video calling feature, and the quality is excellent. It works over WebRTC, another open standard. The app also lets you send voice notes, enables disappearing messages, and has its own app ecosystem. I did try playing chess one time there, but it was a bit spotty; though, we did manage to complete the game with a victory for me. To add people to Delta Chat, you can either give them your Delta Chat link or your QR code to scan. These are the only ways to add users, so you won't have any spam bots bothering you. If the people you want to chat with don't have the app yet, just send them your link, and it will take them to a webpage where they can install the app and then add you. It's really quick for them to install it and get started, which is nice. Credit: Microsoft. The Majorana 2 quantum chip unveiled in 2026. I do not think quantum computers are too far out now, and I do hope that Delta Chat is able to push out Autocrypt v2 sooner, rather than later, so bad actors do not attempt to collect encrypted communications and then decrypt them in the future using quantum computers. By getting people’s messages post-quantum-safe now, users won’t have to worry when quantum computers start cracking legacy encryption. Overall, I would recommend this app to people who are already past WhatsApp and Messenger and have perhaps begun using apps like Telegram or Session. It shares a lot of characteristics with these apps and goes a lot further than Telegram in terms of security. By being based on email, it is also resistant to censorship, and the lack of a username and password makes you anonymous (if you want to be) and safe from brute force password cracking attempts. Let me know in the comments if you’ve tried Delta Chat recently. Do you think it's a good bulwark against governments that are tightening their grip on the internet?
  • Recent Achievements

    • One Year In
      bernmeister earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Week One Done
      Scoobystu earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      tuben earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • First Post
      OffsetAbs earned a badge
      First Post
    • Reacting Well
      OffsetAbs earned a badge
      Reacting Well
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      474
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      220
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      156
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      73
    5. 5
      FloatingFatMan
      71
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!