Have to re-install Brave multiple times per day on Windows11

[rgrindley]

Troubleshooting technical issues is much easier when both the user and support agent practice clear communication. For this reason, we have provided the template below for you to fill out with information about your issue. Please provide as much detail as possible so we can most efficiently resolve your problem.

Delete the any text above the line separator below before posting

---

Description of the issue:
How can this issue be reproduced?

1. Install Brave on Windows11

2. In a few hours, Brave installer will run in background, crash, BraveCrashHandler runs and fails, Brave install is corrupted

3. Go back to #1 and re-install Brave…

Expected result: Auto-update would not corrupt/uninstall Brave

Brave Version( check About Brave): 1.85.111

Additional Information: Started happening about 3 weeks ago.

[Mattches]

Not sure I quite understand – the installer should only run when manually initiated the first time you install it. Something in Windows must be firing it for some reason. Can you please try installing Brave, then deleting the installer file from your machine entirely and see if the issue still occurs?

[rgrindley]

Deleted. Will wait and see.

[rgrindley]

Still happened. So I did a bit more digging. And realized that I have Brave installations in both “Program Files” and “Program Files (x86)” folders. After the spontaneous un-install, the “Program Files” was gone, and the “Program Files (x86)” had a Recovery folder with a datestamp of yesterday (when the un-install would have happened). So I think I had two installs that were conflicting. I’ve completely removed the “Program Files (x86)” and re-installed. Will see how it goes.

[rgrindley]

Still happening. I actually had Process Control running, and saw everything crash. Brave shut down, CrashHandler kicked in, and eventually what was left running was “setup.exe” from Brave. All the folders/files within “Program Files/BraveSoftware” were removed.

I had to manually kill the two “setup.exe” before I could re-run Brave installer. Interestingly, after the install, everything went into “Program Files (x86)/BraveSoftware”. Very strange.

[rgrindley]

I completely uninstalled Brave, and removed all folders in Program Files and Program Files (x86). Re-installed Brave from the website. The installer went into Program Files (x86), but the program itself went into Program Files. I did notice that the version is now 85.116, earlier this morning it was 85.111. So it does like something in the auto-update process is clobbering things.

[rgrindley]

Still happening. Are there any debug/trace logs I can access?

[Mattches]

Trying to get some more eyes on this – appreciate your patience.

[rgrindley]

Hasn’t happened for a few days. However, this error may be the reason why:

An error occurred while checking for updates: Update check failed to start (error code 1: 0X80004005 – system level).

Learn more

Brave 1.85.116 (Official Build) (64-bit)

Chromium: 143.0.7499.110

[MasterLink]

Win+R, type in services.msc, hit enter. Look for 3 services, they should look exactly like this including the “manual” and “automatic” options per each item. If they are any different, this is likely the culprit.

This error usually means the updater service registry entry may be missing or corrupt, because it’s unable to elevate itself to admin rights by itself to self-update (which is what this service is responsible for).

If comfortable, you can technically restore the registry keys by saving the following as a .reg file and reinstalling it in your registry. Since it’s not being added via “sc” which can start the service, you’ll need to reboot first.

As usual with registry keys, don’t trust any registry key give, including me. Vette it, or wait for @Mattches to verify the key as Brave’s intended legitimate key entries. (Even though I trust my own keys, for you and others safety, never trust a stranger with registry stuff).

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\brave]
"Type"=dword:00000010
"Start"=dword:00000002
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"ImagePath"=hex(2):22,00,43,00,3a,00,5c,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,\
  6d,00,20,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,20,00,28,00,78,00,38,00,36,00,29,\
  00,5c,00,42,00,72,00,61,00,76,00,65,00,53,00,6f,00,66,00,74,00,77,00,61,00,\
  72,00,65,00,5c,00,55,00,70,00,64,00,61,00,74,00,65,00,5c,00,42,00,72,00,61,\
  00,76,00,65,00,55,00,70,00,64,00,61,00,74,00,65,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,\
  22,00,20,00,2f,00,73,00,76,00,63,00,00,00
"DisplayName"="Brave Update Service (brave)"
"DependOnService"=hex(7):52,00,50,00,43,00,53,00,53,00,00,00,00,00
"WOW64"=dword:0000014c
"ObjectName"="LocalSystem"
"Description"="Keeps your BraveSoftware software up to date. If this service is disabled or stopped, your BraveSoftware software will not be kept up to date, meaning security vulnerabilities that may arise cannot be fixed and features may not work. This service uninstalls itself when there is no BraveSoftware software using it."
"DelayedAutostart"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\BraveElevationService]
"Type"=dword:00000010
"Start"=dword:00000003
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"ImagePath"=hex(2):22,00,43,00,3a,00,5c,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,\
  6d,00,20,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,5c,00,42,00,72,00,61,00,76,00,65,\
  00,53,00,6f,00,66,00,74,00,77,00,61,00,72,00,65,00,5c,00,42,00,72,00,61,00,\
  76,00,65,00,2d,00,42,00,72,00,6f,00,77,00,73,00,65,00,72,00,5c,00,41,00,70,\
  00,70,00,6c,00,69,00,63,00,61,00,74,00,69,00,6f,00,6e,00,5c,00,31,00,34,00,\
  33,00,2e,00,31,00,2e,00,38,00,35,00,2e,00,31,00,31,00,36,00,5c,00,65,00,6c,\
  00,65,00,76,00,61,00,74,00,69,00,6f,00,6e,00,5f,00,73,00,65,00,72,00,76,00,\
  69,00,63,00,65,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,22,00,00,00
"DisplayName"="Brave Elevation Service (BraveElevationService)"
"DependOnService"=hex(7):52,00,50,00,43,00,53,00,53,00,00,00,00,00
"ObjectName"="LocalSystem"
"Description"="Provides elevated privileges for Brave."

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\bravem]
"Type"=dword:00000010
"Start"=dword:00000003
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"ImagePath"=hex(2):22,00,43,00,3a,00,5c,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,\
  6d,00,20,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,20,00,28,00,78,00,38,00,36,00,29,\
  00,5c,00,42,00,72,00,61,00,76,00,65,00,53,00,6f,00,66,00,74,00,77,00,61,00,\
  72,00,65,00,5c,00,55,00,70,00,64,00,61,00,74,00,65,00,5c,00,42,00,72,00,61,\
  00,76,00,65,00,55,00,70,00,64,00,61,00,74,00,65,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,\
  22,00,20,00,2f,00,6d,00,65,00,64,00,73,00,76,00,63,00,00,00
"DisplayName"="Brave Update Service (bravem)"
"DependOnService"=hex(7):52,00,50,00,43,00,53,00,53,00,00,00,00,00
"WOW64"=dword:0000014c
"ObjectName"="LocalSystem"
"Description"="Keeps your BraveSoftware software up to date. If this service is disabled or stopped, your BraveSoftware software will not be kept up to date, meaning security vulnerabilities that may arise cannot be fixed and features may not work. This service uninstalls itself when there is no BraveSoftware software using it."
"DelayedAutostart"=dword:00000001

Once you restart, before going to Brave, verify first it actually is now showing up in services.msc as it should be per my screenshot. I personally on my end ripped these keys from a Brave install in a VM on Windows 11 (and found the keys are the same on Windows 10 in a VM as well), so it should be the correct keys the installer might not be getting, causing this. I also verified before exporting these keys, that Brave can self update.

The forum here DOES appear to truncate some columns, making the keys appear cut off, but you can verify if it copies and pastes correctly as this screenshot shows the last Description line should really have, basically describing the error you’re seeing.

[rgrindley]

No Brave services at all showing up - so yup, the registry is “corrupted”!

I’ll wait for Mattches to confirm. As I said, luckily my issue not occurring now.

[MasterLink]

For sure. I’ve seen this error across the community, but I did notice one odd thing, Opera, Edge, Chrome, all have the same odd issue with their services going missing. The description even implies it self-deletes if Brave is removed, but, it wasn’t removed you clearly have it installed and even have been reinstalling it, yet Omaha never put them back in.

[clifton]

Hi folks,

A bit hard to tell exactly what is going on- but I would ask to visit appwiz.cpl on Windows and then remove the versions of Brave.

Then, let’s re-install them using fresh binary from https://brave.com/download/. When you go to do the re-install, let’s right click and pick Run as administrator. The UAC prompt is supposed to elevate when installer executes - but maybe it didn’t.

Let us know if this makes any difference. It is odd to see the binary in the x86 directory. Did your machine used to be 32 bit and you upgraded it? For the registry, you might need to look in the WOW6432Node versions of the registry to see the real value.

[MasterLink]

EDIT: Edited to not come off as rude, because I’m not trying to be, just stumped.

Chrome, Edge, Brave all put their updater in x86. This is SOP.

See even Edge too:

It is odd to see the binary in the x86 directory.

It’s not, the updater has always lived there. You do still install it there to this day even.

This is all SOP for Chromium/Omaha as mentioned, so to clear up confusion, it’s the updater and its services that are messed up. Brave will suffer issues unless the services are properly re-registered and uninstalling nor reinstalling actually will bring the keys back. I can replicate it in a VM by deleting a key, uninstalling, installing as admin, those keys never come back.

As for the Wow64 node, yes, you and even Edge do create them:

Because again, Edge has it too:

(I do not however think its wise for me to export the wow64 versions to make a hot-patch, because there seems to be certain GUID strings that might be device/computer specific, so this is one I don’t wish to tamper with, the Brave updater/installer really should be ideally fixing these).

As a user I have done all I can to contribute to helping fix this issue. It’s up to the devs to recognize the bug in front of them and simply use a VM to intentionally remove a service, and watch as Brave fails to update with these errors, and Brave uninstallation and reinstallation, simply does not put these services back. Plain and simple really. lol But beyond this, I’m done moving forward on updating issues. I’ve stated multiple times where the problem lies. But asking users to do this, do that isn’t going to work when it’s broken at the source: Omaha.

[289wk]

Related:

Brave Updating Fails

Whenever I try to update Brave Browser, either using Patch My PC or trying manually using Settings, About Brave, it fails with “An error occurred while checking for updates: Update check failed to start (error code 4: 0X80070005 – system level). This happens every time. I have tried some of the suggestions from others here but it still refuses to work. I would like to use Brave as my default browser but cannot consider it until I have resolved this problem

[rgrindley]

I went to appwiz.cpl, and Brave does NOT even show as installed. But it works fine now - probably won’t auto-update, but at this point that is fine by me.

So I will let you folks figure out what I should do to ensure a clean re-install. No rush on my end.

[MasterLink]

Yea, this unfortunately proves what I’ve been trying to preach for a bit now, the services de-register themselves IF it thinks Brave is not installed (per their own services description), but Omaha, the installer they use, is not even re-registering anything or trying.

So learning that upon installation it doesn’t even show that Brave is installed, really does point at Omaha not properly clearing/registering things. I know Brave didn’t develop it, Google did, and as a result Edge, Opera and Google Chrome users run into this very same issue.

Someone just needs to consider that Omaha is the culprit which I do need to thank @289wk for even pointing out. If it weren’t for them mentioning the installer was Omaha and that’s the shared bit between most Chromium based browsers (not all seem to use Omaha), I’d have still thought it was the browser part itself, not the service/installer.

(I did try and uninstall Brave a few times on a Windows 10 VM and found it does NOT de-register all of its services and leaves them installed, but upon reinstallation, Brave did still show up in appwiz.cpl, however because the service states it de-registers itself if Brave is not installed, I bet it checks the program list and if it doesn’t see itself there ‘appwiz.cpl’ it just assumes itself is uninstalled, without simply checking, is the actual brave.exe binary present? Which it is, because you’re launching it.)

I just hope they don’t start getting confused over the “Program Files (x86)” part, because that actually is where their own updater lives (and the browser itself lives under normal “Program Files” without the x86 part).

[clifton]

Hi @MasterLink thanks for the reply

When I shared I was confused about the x86 folder being used, I mean this for the Brave executable itself. On a 64-bit machine, a system level (admin) install of Brave should be going to C:\Program Files\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser. If someone is seeing the Brave browser executable put under C:\Program Files (x86), then perhaps they downloaded the 32-bit version of Brave and are running 64-bit Windows. It’s possible that is what happened - 32 and 64 bit are different channels in Omaha.

Basically, the person I was responding to @rgrindley confirmed it’s not showing up in appwiz.cpl which is also odd. Below is a direct download link for 64-bit Brave on release channel. @rgrindley I would encourage installing this (run as admin if needed) and make sure Brave registers itself in the appwiz.cpl.

Click here for download

[clifton]

The updater living at C:\Program Files (x86)\BraveSoftware\Update is fine - I believe that is expected. But Brave should still be registered in appwiz.cpl.

[MasterLink]

@clifton

But Brave should still be registered in appwiz.cpl.

Right, and since the service de-registers itself if it doesn’t think Brave is installed (per its own description) perhaps this is what’s causing everyone’s services to be missing? Honestly I think perhaps one thing that would be interesting to check is, anyone reporting that they cannot update, does Brave even show up as installed in appwiz.cpl? Or is it missing as well for them?

I do know when uninstalled, it doesn’t even cleanup all of the services, it leaves them behind, and if you intentionally delete one of those left behind and reinstall, Omaha does not put it back it seems. I guess it checks one thing and assumes the rest are there, without checking everything one by one first if it is there, but also “correct”.