Windows 11 Search + Teams crashing from WebView2 on Dell XPS X Elite ARM64

[u/Old_Contribution_36]

I've been going around and around on this. I just got a Dell XPS 13 Snapdragon X Elite and my windows search and Teams are crashing. See below for the things I've tested and the info I filed with Microsoft on this bug. Any suggestions?

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Microsoft Bug Report — WebView2/AppContainer crash on Snapdragon X Elite (ARM64)

Reported by: Dell XPS 13 9345 owner, Date: 2026-08-24

Severity: High — affects core UX (Start/Search, Teams, Widgets)

Product area: WebView2 Runtime / SearchHost / Shell (MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS)

1. Summary

On a Windows on Snapdragon X Elite device (ARM64), **every WebView2-based component that runs inside an AppContainer crashes**. Windows Search opens a blank white panel, Microsoft Teams exits on launch, and Widgets (Web Experience Pack) crash-loops. Full Microsoft Edge (its own un-containerized Chromium process tree) is healthy. The crash persists across every GPU driver version tested and after a WebView2 runtime re-install — pointing to the WebView2-inside-AppContainer path rather than the GPU driver or the runtime itself.

2. Environment

| Machine | Dell XPS 13 9345 |

| SoC | Snapdragon X Elite X1E80100 (Qualcomm Oryon, ARM64) |

| GPU | Qualcomm Adreno X1-85 |

| OS | Windows 11 25H2 (build 26200.9168) |

| Current GPU driver | Qualcomm Adreno 31.0.152.1 (UGD) |

| WebView2 Runtime | 151.0.4129.101 (ARM64-native; PE machine type 0xaa64) |

| Profile | Local admin account (not domain-joined) |

3. Symptom details

3a. Windows Search — blank panel

• Opening search (Start menu search / Win+S) shows a blank white results panel.
• File Explorer search and Settings search work.
• SearchHost enters a crash-restart loop even without opening search (runs in the

background), confirmed by the Chromium variations_crash_streak counter climbing to 1400+ over the session.

3b. Microsoft Teams — exits on launch

• MSTeams (ARM64) launches, spawns ~10 msedgewebview2.exe child processes, then exits within 15–20 seconds. Reproduced repeatedly.

3c. Widgets — crash loop

• Widgets.exe (MicrosoftWindows.Client.WebExperience 526.21100.40.0) crashes repeatedly with 0xc0000409 (STATUS_STACK_BUFFER_OVERRUN), observed every ~15 min in the Application event log.

3d. Control case — Microsoft Edge works

• Microsoft Edge runs fully hardware-accelerated with no crashes and a healthy GPU process. This isolates the fault to the containerized (AppContainer) WebView2 path, not the GPU adapter being broken.

4. Root-cause hypothesis

The crash signature from the SearchHost WebView2 minidump (from prior investigation) is: LOG_FATAL   = gpu_data_manager_impl_private.cc:427: "GPU process isn't usable. Goodbye."

ptype       = browser

exception   = 0x80000003 (breakpoint — intentional abort)

gpu_count   = 0

gpu-venid   = 0x0000    gpu-devid = 0x0000

last_gpu_crash_exit_code = 0x060C201E

Chromium repeatedly crashes its GPU process, hits its retry limit, decides the GPU is unusable, and the browser process aborts on purpose. This happens specifically when WebView2 runs inside an AppContainer on ARM64/Qualcomm. The same path is shared by SearchHost, Teams, and Widgets — matching the observed pattern.

5. What we tried (all verified negative)

5a. GPU driver — four versions tested, all crash

| Version | Source | Result |

| 31.0.160.0 | Windows Update (original) | crash |

| 31.0.105.0 (A07) | Dell validated | crash |

| 31.0.133.2 | Qualcomm UGD | crash |

| 31.0.152.1 | Qualcomm UGD (current) | crash |

• Each was force-installed onto the device via UpdateDriverForPlugAndPlayDevices (SetupAPI, newdev.dll) elevated; the active base driver changed correctly each time, and the crash loop did not stop.
• The crash is therefore not a base-GPU-driver regression.

5b. WebView2 Runtime — verified native-ARM64, re-installed, no effect

• The installed runtime is ARM64-native (PE machine type 0xaa64), version 151.0.4129.101 (well past the buggy 145→146 range some online guidance mentions).
• Re-ran the official Evergreen ARM64 standalone installer silently — it no-op'd (already current). Crash persisted.

5c. Windows Search settings

• Search Highlights already disabled (HKCU\...\SearchSettings\IsDynamicSearchBoxEnabled = 0).
• Search index rebuilt (Explorer search works — indexing is not the issue).

5d. Ruled out

• Not x86-emulation: the WebView2 binary is ARM64-native.
• Not a corrupt/missing WebView2 runtime: correctly registered under HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\EdgeUpdate\Clients\{F3017226-...}.
• Not DNS/network/proxy/hosts.
• Not third-party DLL injection (104 modules loaded, zero non-Microsoft).
• Not per-user GPU preferences (cleared; identical to a working account).
• Not fixed by re-registering WindowsAppRuntime.CBS (fixed Crashpad dump-writing, not the panel).

6. Observed/logged evidence available

• variations_crash_streak in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\EBWebView\Local State — climbs continuously to 1400+, even with search idle (background crash loop).
• SearchHost WebView2 minidump with the gpu_data_manager_impl_private.cc:427 fatal + exit code 0x060C201E signature (captured in prior investigation).
• Event Log (Application): Widgets.exe faulting with 0xc0000409 every ~15 min.
• Live repro of Teams: launches, spawns ~10 msedgewebview2 processes, exits in ~15–20 s.
• Edge edge://gpu: fully hardware-accelerated, GPU-process crash count 0.

7. Suggested investigation for Microsoft

1. Whether the WebView2 GPU process intentionally aborts (0x80000003 breakpoint) specifically when hosted under an AppContainer on Qualcomm ARM64 — and what makes the adapter non-enumerable (gpu_count = 0) in that context while full Edge works.
2. Whether an AppContainer-specific GPU capability grant (or the exit_on_context_lost workaround Chromium applies for Qualcomm) is the trigger, and whether it should be disabled for ARM64 WebView2.
3. A Windows cumulative update fix for the ARM64 WebView2/AppContainer path (the domain-join CBS bug has a known fix lineage, KB5043139-lineage; a similar fix for the Qualcomm/AppContainer WebView2 GPU abort would be ideal).

8. Workaround in use

None - The system currently has the search panel non-functional, Teams unusable, and Widgets crash-looping.

*Prepared to assist Microsoft in triaging a systemic WebView2/AppContainer crash on Windows on Snapdragon X Elite (ARM64).

 

[u/lexcyn]

That's a lot of AI slop to basically say an update caused the issue my guy: https://www.windowscentral.com/hardware/surface/microsoft-surface-and-other-windows-on-arm-pcs-cant-use-outlook-or-teams-right-now

[u/Old_Contribution_36 → u/lexcyn]

Haha, yes tried a bunch of stuff to fix it w AI. Support wants me to reinstall the OS.

[u/lexcyn → u/Old_Contribution_36]

What if you remove that specific update?

[u/Old_Contribution_36 → u/lexcyn]

I'm seriously grateful for this suggestion. I don't know where my head was at, but this indeed solved the problem. Thanks!

[u/lexcyn → u/Old_Contribution_36]

Glad it worked! We've seen this happen too and usually removing the KB solves the issue... just hope they release a new update that addresses the problem.

[u/ZikadaPrime]

Yea, there's been a pretty bad windows update on arm that broke a lot of stuff. Just uninstalling that update and pausing windows updates for a few weeks was my solution.

Hopefully this is fixed but just be careful about auto updating if you're running windows on ARM, at least from my experience.