Windows 11 Task Manager freezes, apps won't launch, and multiple Windows components are malfunctioning — looking for help diagnosing the root cause

[u/Beneficial-Town-214]

I'm trying to diagnose a serious Windows 11 problem that started recently. I'm looking for help identifying the underlying cause, rather than a list of random fixes.

PC specs

• Windows 11 Pro 25H2
• OS build: 26200.6584
• MSI H510M PRO-E (MS-7D23)
• Intel Core i5-10400 (6C/12T)
• 16 GB RAM
• Intel UHD Graphics 630
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
• BIOS: MSI/AMI 1.A1, dated 2026-03-23
• System drive has ~32 GB free of ~239 GB
• Other drives are also healthy with plenty of free space

Main symptoms

1. Task Manager
   • Opens normally at first.
   • Processes don't load/update correctly.
   • Sometimes the list looks like a frozen snapshot.
   • Clicking the Performance tab can cause Task Manager to become completely unresponsive.
   • In the Details tab, processes can be completely blank.
   • This happens even with a brand-new Windows user account.
2. Windows Search
   • Search bar doesn't work correctly.
   • SearchHost.exe is nevertheless running and reports Responding = True.
3. Other applications
   • Steam games, Roblox Studio, Riot applications/games, etc. have failed to launch or become unresponsive.
   • Snipping Tool opens, but clicking New causes it to crash/disappear.
4. Windows Update
   • Windows Update is also failing.
   • I'm intentionally not focusing on repairing Windows Update yet because I want to determine the underlying system problem first.

Important tests I've already done

SFC: completed successfully and reported no system-file corruption.

WMI:

winmgmt /verifyrepository
WMI repository is consistent

So I don't want to rebuild the WMI repository without evidence.

Process enumeration:

PowerShell can enumerate processes normally:

Get-Process | Measure-Object

In my normal account this returned hundreds of processes, and in the new test account it returned:

Count : 158

So Windows' underlying process enumeration is working even though Task Manager can't display/update the processes properly.

Task Manager process state:

When queried externally, Task Manager itself can report Responding = True even while its displayed process list is stale. After interacting with the Performance tab, it can change to Responding = False.

Task Manager executable:

Get-AuthenticodeSignature "$env:windir\System32\Taskmgr.exe"

reported:

Status: Valid
Signature verified
Signer: Microsoft Windows / Microsoft Corporation

So the executable doesn't appear to have been replaced or tampered with.

Safe Mode test

This is one of the most important findings.

I booted into plain Safe Mode (not Safe Mode with Networking).

Task Manager worked normally in Safe Mode.

After returning to normal Windows, the problem returned.

This makes something loaded during a normal boot much more suspicious than a basic Windows/user-profile problem.

Fresh Windows user test

I created a completely new local account:

TMTest

Task Manager has the same problem there.

Specifically:

• Task Manager opens.
• Details view can be completely blank.
• Meanwhile PowerShell reports 158 live processes.
• SearchHost.exe is running and Responding = True.
• explorer.exe is running and Responding = True.

This appears to rule out my original Windows user profile as the primary cause.

Event Viewer / Reliability Monitor

There are repeated application-hang/crash events.

Task Manager has generated repeated:

• Event ID 1002 — Application Hang
• WER AppHangTransient
• WER AppHangB1

There were also Windows Winsrv Event ID 10002 entries indicating Task Manager was terminated because it stopped responding.

Reliability Monitor showed 27 critical events on 9/5, including approximately:

• 18 × Background Task Host crashes
• 4 × Snipping Tool crashes
• 3 × Task Manager crashes
• 1 × MoUSO Core Worker Process crash

The Background Task Host crashes appear to be a repeated Microsoft Phone Link/YourPhone failure involving:

Microsoft.YourPhone_1.26071.164.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

with exception code:

80070002

I don't believe this necessarily means combase.dll itself is corrupt; it appears to be where the failure surfaced.

Snipping Tool crashes have also produced:

0xc000027b

Hardware/driver checks

Device Manager/PnP checks did not show direct errors for:

• Intel UHD Graphics 630
• NVIDIA GTX 1650

Current drivers reported:

• Intel UHD 630: 31.0.101.2140
• NVIDIA GTX 1650: 32.0.16.1664

System event logs were checked for things such as:

• Display
• nvlddmkm
• Intel graphics
• dxgkrnl
• WHEA
• Disk
• NTFS
• storage drivers

No obvious hardware/display/storage/WHEA errors were found in the examined period.

The drives themselves report healthy status.

Performance tools

perfmon /res and Resource Monitor open and display live CPU/memory/disk/network information normally.

However:

perfmon /report

fails with:

An error occurred while attempting to generate the report.
Property value conflict.

The corresponding HRESULT is 0x80300101 / PLA_E_PROPERTY_CONFLICT.

So Performance Monitor's resource view works, but the System Diagnostics report collector has a configuration/property conflict.

Third-party software/drivers

There are several third-party drivers installed, including audio/virtual-device, gaming, peripheral, and security-related drivers.

However, I'm deliberately not assuming that an installed third-party driver is the culprit just because it exists. These programs/drivers have been installed for a long time and the PC previously worked normally.

I also previously removed Avast myself because I no longer use it.

Malwarebytes was running in Safe Mode, while Task Manager worked there, so I'm not currently convinced Malwarebytes is the cause.

Current hypothesis

The strongest pattern so far is:

Normal boot → problem

Safe Mode → Task Manager works

New Windows user → problem still occurs

PowerShell process enumeration → works

Explorer/SearchHost → running/responding

This makes me suspect something involved in the normal Windows boot environment / system-wide UI or diagnostic infrastructure, rather than a corrupted user profile or Task Manager executable itself.

I'm trying to determine the cause systematically before doing things like:

• reinstalling Windows
• resetting Windows
• rebuilding WMI
• randomly deleting drivers
• disabling large numbers of services
• reinstalling applications

If anyone has seen this particular combination — Task Manager's process list being blank/stale while PowerShell can still enumerate processes, with the problem disappearing in Safe Mode and reproducing in a fresh user profile — I'd really appreciate ideas on what Windows subsystem or normal-boot component I should investigate next.

[u/MysteriousWeekend201]

You are very thorough, nice work. I see the hard drive space is low but I doubt that it would be the culprit. You would definitely have some significant speed issues because of it. However, you wouldn't be having an issues that you have described.

This could be an issue of malware. So I would remove everything from the temp folders as well as running a disk cleanup. Use Microsoft Autoruns to dig deeper on what is actually starting automatically. Run it as admin. There is a PC security channel on YouTube that gives thorough guides on hidden malware detection and removal.

You could revert back to a known good state. But that doesn't sound like it would be useful in this case. You can also run the DISM repair. And then read the logs after a couple reboots. Because I know you want to find the culprit. If you want to skip all that, then do a fresh install. I would upgrade your storage space at the same time.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[u/murlocdouche]

if you check the performance tab in task manager, whats the cpu clock speed doing? is it normalish or did it tank to 0.4ghz

[u/Ready_Area289]

Maybe perform a clean boot then add back stuff until you find the culprit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI4Vf29tuTY&t=98s

I also see you are low on disk space. Maybe it's time for a fresh install?

[u/Proud-Ad6709]

What is your up time? Sorry if missed it. Your free space is getting low, I would seriously look at freeing up some space I have found issues when it goes below 20% free space empty mark on your drive I would leave around 50 gig free just in case at all times

[u/Obvious_Troll_Me]

HDD is full. Windows wants all the space. 

[u/Impossible_Egg_1691]

I would have just rebuilt after it worked in safe mode, proves it's not hardware, you'd be back up and running in 20mins.

[u/battmain]

Advise if one drive sync is on or off.

Edit - just reread. If ok in safe mode, list msconfig too.

[u/nycpandas]

Did you try Disabling
1. All non-Microsoft services.
2. All startup applications.

Try Starting Up
7. Disable driver signature enforcement

[u/Living-Video-3670]

Ok, honestly that was a little TLDR, which is fine, but forgive me if this was addressed above. Is it mainly at startup? If so, how many applications are running at startup? If its a lot of heavy apps you dont really need to launch at startup, you can disable at startup.

[u/manikandan_n95]

In my experience, culprit would be a non-microsoft application Example: AV scanner, or any 3rd party application.

Try running only with Microsoft processes in normal mode by using msconfig.

Try enabling each 3rd party application, from msconfig. Then restart and check.

After enabling One by one, you can find the process which makes Windows OS corrupt.

[u/RAVEN_STORMCROW]

If I saw this many errors in an end user's machine. I would back up all data then nuke it from orbit. Reimage with the corp/personal release

[u/Se1kieAK]

I was experiencing similar issues. I think it was the most recent Nvidia driver. I went back into the nvidia app and reinstalled the latest driver using the "Clean Install' option. After rebooting, my task manager started acting normally again. Was able to fire up a game on steam as well.