Unable to start a DCOM Server

Question

Windows jump lists and Cortana WinKey+C command are not working. The jump list issue is also documented in the Broken jump lists on Windows 10.

Searching through the Event Viewer, I found two errors.

For Jump lists (Event ID 10000):

Unable to start a DCOM Server: {C82192EE-6CB5-4BC0-9EF0-FB818773790A}. The error: "2147943140" Happened while starting this command:

C:\WINDOWS\System32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,SHCreateLocalServerRunDll {c82192ee-6cb5-4bc0-9ef0-fb818773790a} -Embedding

For Cortana (Event ID 10001):

Unable to start a DCOM Server: {24AC8F2B-4D4A-4C17-9607-6A4B14068F97} as Unavailable/Unavailable. The error: "2147943140" Happened while starting this command:

C:\WINDOWS\System32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,SHCreateLocalServerRunDll {24AC8F2B-4D4A-4C17-9607-6A4B14068F97} -Embedding

Manually running the commands fixes the issue until the next reboot. However, even when using a scheduled task, the commands cannot be run and fail with, presumably, the same error.

Does anyone have an idea on how to fix this?

The only thing, of many that I've tried, that works (temporarily) is to do a Repair install of Windows or to update to a new version (I am currently running 1903). This works for a few days, and then gets broken again. I suspect that deploying a Microsoft Store app from Visual Studio is what breaks it, but I am not entirely sure.

From what I've read elsewhere, this might be some kind of a permissions problem.

I also get a warning on Event ID 10016:

The machine-default permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID {C2F03A33-21F5-47FA-B4BB-156362A2F239} and APPID {316CDED5-E4AE-4B15-9113-7055D84DCC97} to the user [---] from address LocalHost (Using LRPC) running in the application container Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_10.0.18362.145_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy SID [---]. This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

I tried using the Component Services tool, but could not find anything with the given ID.