lđa

How apps didnt let me login through google and how i fixed it with chatgpt

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by

lda
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this is SOOOO annoying. Antigravity, cant login. Android studio, cant login. RESOLVE! cant login.

this is how i find out.

The Problem

you know how you normally login by clicking buttons in an app? it will:

  • open a website (legitimate by login provider)
  • you do the logging in and the perms stuff
  • it will redirect to a page the app controls (Login done you can close type shi)
  • done. You can now use the app logged in.

Yes. now what happens if the browser WILL NOT open the website.

thats what i got.

how long was ts for me?

idk pretty long. i cant pinpoint the exact time, but it was atleast for a year.

the breaking point

yesterday when i want to REALLY get in the weeds of Ts. I want to login to youtube from resolve to yk upload the video

the discovery: first move

ask chat this time maybe 5.4 can handle it

chat tells me it might be:

  • apps using old login flows (unlikely)
  • apps not approved by google (very unlikely, i should see this in the browser)
  • network issue (DNS, i have one running, can that be a problem?)
  • “Open browser” broken (idk about this, other links DO work)
  • some other stuff idfk obscure stuff that will 100% affect other things too.

after a while chat says to try 

start "" "https://accounts.google.com/..."

oh now that is a problem. i tried that and nothing runs.

ts start thing is cool, i can slot in my own url https://ldlda.com and it runs btw. THIS doesnt.

https://mail.google.com does. microsoft-edge:https://accounts.google.com forces ms edge, works.

oh now thats new. Default browser cant catch this? chrome cant catch this?

default browser?

the two commands chat suggests to see default filetype/extension handlers are assoc and ftype. Limited view of what settings > apps > default apps give you.

so i switched default browsers. chrome. firefox. ms edge itself, hell even operaGX. NOTHING OPENS.

now that i reread chat msgs chat actually caught this early. “This is premium Windows default-app registry slop,” it says. we’ll get back on ts.

assoc and ftype

these two commands are very cool! try this:

> ftype https
https="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe" "%1"

thats so cool. so the thing that pops up is determined bt the Filetype over here. extension like assoc .html can get you to a queryable file types.

by chance, is it resolve?

so if the browser lowk takes some and rejects some, is it resolve?

So chat asks to print ports that resolve may open. I see the PID in the task manager, then chat says to netstat -ano | findstr LISTEN and see the ports open. I see that resolve over here IS opening a port on 127.0.0.1. 

TCP 0.0.0.0:49153   0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING 82820 (82820 is the resolve PID)
TCP 127.0.0.1:60100 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING 82820 something like this idk

so resolve actually does work. This must be something else. When me tried to login again multiple times, i see a lil cursor wheel, then nothing opens (again for the umpteenth time)

Chat was quickly to suggest: broken browser handoff.

yeah when you see Open with… just once, you know that that is the path. This problem was quickly Gone when i mentioned even operagx was acting the same.

its the URL itself.

fuhh how ts works bro.

chat quickly rules out some stuff:

  • windows defender smartscreen (can be, but ts is google.com. GOOGLE!)
  • hooking softwares (what the f)
    • antivirus?
    • ad blockers?
    • capture tools?

note that i have none of that

  • maybe still OAuth problem (broken login flows, again unlikely)

so potential moves from chat:

  • try run diag (did, noop)
  • try booting it off and back on (NOOOOOOO)
  • try another domain (As you can see mail works)
  • try Process Monitoring it (advanced)

and you know what i did

tracing the url with procmon

Process Monitor Sees It All. all the calls, registry read/write, everything else i care about and dont.

so i quickly winget that thing. Its In.

and its run. and i can see A whole bunch of stuff. it appends things to the screen SO FAST. im not ready for none of ts.

Ts is like some wireshark shii. and jus like wireshark the filtering is ahh. It has targets window thats pogger (i triggered it by accident)

so i slowly find the mentions of resolve, then google, then the damn link.

I found it trying to append the link (the correct link because this has a redirect_uri param that points to localhost:60100, conveniently the port that is open!!!) to every single registry folder on the planet.

and its asking WSA.

This is where WSA comes into play.

I found a ProcessCreate. The command is WsaClient.exe /appuri https://accounts.google.com/…

That may trap the link in there and then the link Goes Nowhere.

one of the likely causes chat tells me:

  • An Android Google app inside WSA registered for accounts.google.com

thats it right.

My WSA situation

you know when you install an app then Forgets that it is there? I dont forget that i installed a custom build of WSA, which has google apps like google play, but i sure dont know about this one.

Chat explains something like the Android apps inside wsa can ask for handling of links, and WSA can register that to windows. So windows apps running a link, would be handled by Android apps.

Thatd be cool in some cases. Absolutely Not Here. In fact, chat said that WSA GApps was hijacking our OAuth links. strong words, big problem.

The other cause chat tells me is this custom build doing its bull crap. but probably just this thing of android apps.

Chat quickly tells me what apps it can be:

  • Google app
  • YouTube
  • Google Play Services-ish package
  • Chrome Android
  • Gmail Android

So i slowly get to check. and what do you know, its Google Play Services.

a Windows Subsystem for Android windows, featuring the "Open by default" settings screen under a popup with the header of "31 verified links", subheading "These links are verified and automatically open in this app", followed by the body of the popup container which has a multitude of links containing account.google.com

and that is it. im turning that open supported links slider off. goodbye.

I found other apps with nonzero amount of these links too. It is going too.

Chat explains a bit more here. but i went and searched a google search.

the final key: AppUriHandlers registry

btw when i tested again after all those checkboxes off, it still doesnt move. So google search gemini suggested going here and check some. I see some. a lot. of links. just like those links in the android settings.

and i? deleted all that.

Chat was scared of my system suddenly being broken! no this can be broken idc. So it tells me to backup:

reg export "HKCU\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModel\SystemAppData\MicrosoftCorporationII.WindowsSubsystemForAndroid_8wekyb3d8bbwe\AppUriHandlers" handlers.reg

i ran that, and deleted all the keys. Now it FINALLY works.

AppUriHandlers seems to be (im 100% guessing) a kinda convention? where Windows will look at and from that route web domains to whoever wants it. WSA is honestly not a thing that needs this, so begone.

additional checks in windows settings

Apps > Apps for websites. i just knew that actually, one day after this blog is out. thats crazy

conclusion

know what you are installing. and be ready for Stuff Like This.

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