[BUG]: WhatsApp (UWP) not starting

[vbondzio]

Description

WhatsApp installs seemingly successful but doesn't start beyond a very short hint of a splash screen.

It seems like a service might be missing / disabled but I'm not sure which (and too long out of the Windows troubleshooting game to remember how to trace service start attempts, might dig around with WPA / ETL later)

Note: I am NOT 100% sure that this is related to privacy.sexy but it was a fresh install with only a handful of packages before installing WhatsApp (directly, i.e. https://apps.microsoft.com/en-us/detail/9nksqgp7f2nh via https://store.rg-adguard.net/). This is more of a sanity check in case you have an idea what could be causing this, don't spend too much time on it. I'd reproduce it and binary reduce the script if I wouldn't have broken my virtual lab ...

OS

10.0.22631.3593 (currently, not sure what version was at time of install, whatever 23H2 build was GA TOT ~ a month ago.

Reproduction steps

Install 5319275A.WhatsAppDesktop_2.2414.8.0_neutral_~_cv1g1gvanyjgm.Msixbundle, run. Observe a hint of a splash screen, then nothing.

Scripts

privacy-script-v1.1.txt

Additional information

Other store / UWP apps are working, e.g. calculator. Trying to debug this with VS resulted in:

*
Unable to activate Windows Store app '5319275A.WhatsAppDesktop_cv1g1gvanyjgm!App'. The activation request failed with error 'The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it'.
*

Event Viewer / Microsoft -> Apps -> Microsoft-Windows-TWinUI/Operational

- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
  <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Immersive-Shell" Guid="{315a8872-923e-4ea2-9889-33cd4754bf64}" /> 
  <EventID>5961</EventID> 
  <Version>0</Version> 
  <Level>2</Level> 
  <Task>5961</Task> 
  <Opcode>0</Opcode> 
  <Keywords>0x4000000000000000</Keywords> 
  <TimeCreated SystemTime="2024-05-16T15:54:59.1909769Z" /> 
  <EventRecordID>92</EventRecordID> 
  <Correlation ActivityID="{4c76664f-a748-0012-5270-764c48a7da01}" /> 
  <Execution ProcessID="6468" ThreadID="9000" /> 
  <Channel>Microsoft-Windows-TWinUI/Operational</Channel> 
  <Computer>********</Computer> 
  <Security UserID=******** /> 
  </System>
- <EventData>
  <Data Name="AppId">5319275A.WhatsAppDesktop_cv1g1gvanyjgm!App</Data> 
  <Data Name="ErrorCode">-2147023838</Data> 
  <Data Name="PhaseFlags">8</Data> 
  </EventData>
  </Event>

No change after enabling PLM debug:

PS C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Debuggers\x64> .\plmdebug.exe /enableDebug 5319275A.WhatsAppDesktop_2.2414.8.0_x64__cv1g1gvanyjgm
Package full name is 5319275A.WhatsAppDesktop_2.2414.8.0_x64__cv1g1gvanyjgm.
Enable debug mode
SUCCEEDED

Also no luck with WinDbg:

C:\>"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Debuggers\x64\windbg.exe" -plmPackage 5319275A.WhatsAppDesktop_2.2414.8.0_x64__cv1g1gvanyjgm -plmApp App

returned:

Could not launch PLM package '5319275A.WhatsAppDesktop_2.2414.8.0_x64__cv1g1gvanyjgm', appName 'App', arguments '', Win32 error 0n1058

The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it.

I did a procmon trace, filtered to !SUCCESS and the main svchost PID, the REG events aren't happening outside of an attempt to launch WhatsApp.

procmon_whatsapp_filter-on-svchost.CSV

package info for keywords:

PS C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Debuggers\x64> Get-AppxPackage | Where-Object {$_.PackageFullName -eq "5319275A.WhatsAppDesktop_2.2414.8.0_x64__cv1g1gvanyjgm"}

Name              : 5319275A.WhatsAppDesktop
Publisher         : CN=24803D75-212C-471A-BC57-9EF86AB91435
Architecture      : X64
ResourceId        :
Version           : 2.2414.8.0
PackageFullName   : 5319275A.WhatsAppDesktop_2.2414.8.0_x64__cv1g1gvanyjgm
InstallLocation   : C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\5319275A.WhatsAppDesktop_2.2414.8.0_x64__cv1g1gvanyjgm
IsFramework       : False
PackageFamilyName : 5319275A.WhatsAppDesktop_cv1g1gvanyjgm
PublisherId       : cv1g1gvanyjgm
IsResourcePackage : False
IsBundle          : False
IsDevelopmentMode : False
NonRemovable      : False
Dependencies      : {Microsoft.UI.Xaml.2.8_8.2310.30001.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe, Microsoft.NET.Native.Framework.2.2_2.2.29512.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe,
                    Microsoft.NET.Native.Runtime.2.2_2.2.28604.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe, Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00_14.0.33519.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe...}
IsPartiallyStaged : False
SignatureKind     : Store
Status            : Ok

[Silver347]

I've had this issue once and what solved my problem was that I re-enabled OneSync feature in the settings,after that I ran the script,restarted and it launched normally,I also installed those extra packages which you mentioned above,sorry for my English btw.

Hopefully this helps,cheers.

[femdiya]

Unable to activate Windows Store app '5319275A.WhatsAppDesktop_cv1g1gvanyjgm!App'. The activation request failed with error 'The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it'.

This is.. strange.
Microsoft store sure had a service for license verification and stuff, maybe it's that one which is disabled?

[femdiya]

What's the use anyways,
It's just a bloatware, use the web version, it's literally the same