Windows Server 2025 Event Log Service fails to start and Explorer crashes repeatedly

[SultanOFF]

Hi everyone,

Setup information:

• Proxmox VE 9.1.5 cluster running on 3× ProLiant DL360 Gen10 (fresh install)
• Ceph storage with Tentacle 20.2.0 (fresh install)
• Windows Server 2025 installation using the ISO:
  26100.32230.260111-0550.lt_release_svc_refresh_SERVER_EVAL_x64FRE_fr-fr.iso (from Microsoft website)

I followed the best practices described here:
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Windows_2025_guest_best_practices

Issue encountered:
After installing Windows Server 2025, the following problems appear:

• The Explorer shows up and I can click on apps in the taskbar,
  but when I try to open File Explorer or the Start Menu, it crashes and restarts.
• The same behavior occurs when I left‑click on the desktop.

I attempted to troubleshoot using the Event Log, but the service is stopped.
When trying to manually start it, I get:

"Event Log Service failed to start due to error 1067"

Running "net start eventlog" gives the same error.

sfc /scannow completes successfully and reports no issues.


Additional tests performed:

• I tried installing an older build (10.0.26100.1742).
  Everything works fine until Windows Update installs the latest updates.
  After the reboot, the same issues appear again.
• I created a VM using a Windows Server 2019 ISO, and it works perfectly.

I also found another user experiencing the exact same issue with differents software version, reported here on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/WindowsSer...ows_server_2025_datacenter_event_log_service/

Has anyone experienced this problem or knows how to fix it?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Khensu]

Hey,

I installed a brand new VM on PVE 9.1.5 with following image:
26100.32230.260111-0550.lt_release_svc_refresh_SERVER_EVAL_x64FRE_de-de.iso

I used virtio driver 271, which for me is the most trustworthy recently. (285 is kinda buggy)


My vm config looks like this:

root@Venom:~# qm config 999
agent: 1
bios: ovmf
boot: order=scsi0;ide2;ide0;net0
cores: 4
cpu: x86-64-v3
efidisk0: Cache:vm-999-disk-0,efitype=4m,ms-cert=2023w,pre-enrolled-keys=1,size=4M
ide0: local:iso/virtio-win-0.1.271.iso,media=cdrom,size=709474K
ide2: local:iso/26100.32230.260111-0550.lt_release_svc_refresh_SERVER_EVAL_x64FRE_de-de.iso,media=cdrom,size=8022708K
machine: pc-q35-10.1
memory: 4096
meta: creation-qemu=10.1.2,ctime=1772135726
name: TestWindows
net0: virtio=BC:24:11:AD:DE:6B,bridge=Guests,firewall=1
numa: 0
ostype: win11
scsi0: Cache:vm-999-disk-1,discard=on,iothread=1,size=32G
scsihw: virtio-scsi-single
smbios1: uuid=530b212a-c197-4bd2-9f89-df8fe2833de8
sockets: 1
tpmstate0: Cache:vm-999-disk-2,size=4M,version=v2.0
vmgenid: 9d9c71bc-f728-4917-86aa-f91d11bd0c29

I was sadly not able to reproduce your issue on my side.
Could you share your vm configuration? (qm config <vmid>)
Which virtio driver did you use?

Edit: Even after installing all updates everything seems fine.