Secure Desktop option incompatible with Windows 11 22H2

[KnPk11]

Expected behavior

When using the Secure Desktop for password entry, VeraCrypt switches out of Windows Explorer while typing the password, and upon completion it returns back to Windows Explorer.

Observed behavior

VeraCrypt's Secure Desktop is now almost unusable, as it hangs on a white screen after trying to mount a container. This may happen (if unlucky) on the very first mounting attempt, or more often on the 2nd or 3rd attempt. So you may be able to mount 1-2 containers initially, but later get into the trap of being stuck on the Secure Desktop's white screen, unable to interact with anything but the task manager, and having to log off and log back on (losing any unsaved work).

Steps to reproduce

The easiest way to reproduce this on a Windows 11 22H2 system is to: 1) Select any container for mounting 2) Keep entering the wrong password and you should soon hit the issue soon

Or just try mounting 3 different containers sequentially and you'll likely hit the issue.

Your Environment

This happenes to me on three different machines: my gaming PC, my work laptop, my mini-PC, all running the latest version of Windows 11.

VeraCrypt version: 1.25.9

Operating system and version: Windows 11 Home/Pro 22H2 (build 22621.963)

System type: 64-bit

Misc.

As discussed in this superuser article

[Radium-bit]

Yes, there are similar issues raised on sourceforge .

[QS8]

This is occurring on my machines. VeraCrypt version: 1.25.9 Operating system and version: Windows 11 Home/Pro 22H2 (build 22621.1265) System type: 64-bit

Once I got an error message, which seems to be saying that the problem is a permissions issue which is encountered by a Veracrypt function named "RandinitWithCheck". I attached an image of the error message.

[AlainCo]

Since few months, I have a similar problem. I mount the preferred volumes with secure desktop, and it is switching between the secure desktop and the passphrase typing, and the main desktop and the progressbar of Veracrypt. No crash, always happening, just annoying. The problem appeared recently, not with 22H2. same today after updating to 23H2. It is linked to a new video driver for a USB-VGA device(MindShow USB Display https://github.com/MindShow/USBDisplay/tree/main) and its tray , I have uninstalled the devices and the driver, and nothing was better. But when uninstalling all the program, including the tray, it now works fine.

Maybe is it an incompatibility with an uncommon, or even faulty driver, but you can maybe test with the latests driver

• MSDisplay_Windows_V2.0.1.7.3.exe no need to have the USB devices, since the problem appears just with the tray program.

[idrassi]

A fix has been implemented and version 1.26.10 has been published to Sourceforge Nightly Builds. A user on Sourceforge confirmed that it is working properly now: https://sourceforge.net/p/veracrypt/discussion/general/thread/67d26e9caf/ The release notes mention the fix: https://veracrypt.fr/en/Release%20Notes.html

Please give it a try and report if you still encounter any issues.

[AlainCo]

Thanks, I missed this release. I've installed version 1.26.10, with the MindShow USBDisplay MSDisplay_Windows_V2.0.1.7.3.exe driver/tray (no USB device plugged), and there is still the problem. Screen is switching between secure and normal desktop....

It may be a different problem, quite specific to the driver... the UAC works well, but not the Veracrypt password.

[spiralofhope]

With the new version, I also still saw the secure desktop problem after my second unmount/mount.

I'm not sure how to test in a safe way, and I'm not sure how I ought to reproduce it and what information to provide.

[leonard84]

I'm still experiencing this problem with version 1.26.7