Internet Explorer crashing on Windows Server 2016 – Remote Desktop Session Host

We encountered a strange issue on the Windows Server 2016 Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH) used for VMware Horizon Application Publishing. The Internet Explorer would launch and get into “Not Responding” state, and eventually, the process would close out without any errors.

Process of elimination

• We thought either Windows cumulative updates introduced the issue as it was working fine earlier.
• There were no errors in the Windows Event Viewer (Application, System or Internet Explorer)
• We used the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) command line tool to disable/enabled Internet Explorer without any luck.
  • dism /online /Disable-Feature /FeatureName:Internet-Explorer-Optional-amd64
  • dism /online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:Internet-Explorer-Optional-amd64
• Procmon is showing IE tries to launch the process multiple times, but the sub-process keep failing, and IE finally gives up at the end

• We were running out of troubleshooting ideas

Resolution

My team ended up opening a Microsoft Support case, and they could see that “Name Not Found for the ieproxy.dll” which is due to ieproxy.dll registration issues. Support confirmed they had seen similar instances in the past.

Please open command prompt with Admin rights and re-register the dll from System32 and Syswow64 folders.

%SystemRoot%\System32\regsvr32 ieproxy.dll

%SystemRoot%\Syswow64\regsvr32 ieproxy.dll

 I hope you will find this information useful if you encounter the issue. If you manage to tweak or improvise further on this solution, please don’t forget to keep me posted.

Thanks,
Aresh Sarkari