WebView2 measure reports "Not running" immediately and permanently, even with the runtime installed

[Cypher456]

Summary

The WebView2 measure reports status Not running immediately and permanently after loading a skin, even though the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime is confirmed installed and current. The browser control never initializes, so nothing ever renders -- the skin area stays blank/transparent. This reproduces on every load, with both supported URL configurations (URL=file:///... and the documented HostPath/HostOrigin virtual-host setup).

Environment

• Plugin: WebView2.dll, version listed in Rainmeter's Plugins tab as 1.0.0 (c) 2026 - nstechbytes & RicardoTM
• WebView2 Runtime: confirmed installed at C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\EdgeWebView\Application\152.0.4191.66\ (Evergreen, updated recently)
• OS: Windows 11
• Rainmeter: current stable release
• Skin folder location: user profile Documents folder, synced via OneDrive

Steps to reproduce

1. Create a minimal skin with the measure below (tried both variants -- see "What I tried").
2. Load the skin via Manage Rainmeter (fresh Load, not just Refresh).
3. Open About Rainmeter -> Log.

Observed

The log immediately shows, on every load:

Error   New folder\ICARUSGraph.ini - [WebView2]   WebView2: Not running

This appears within ~1 second of Load, with no preceding "initializing" or transitional state, and it never resolves to "running." It also reappears identically after a full Unload -> Load cycle (not just a live Refresh), and after [!CommandMeasure WebView2 "Reload"].

What I tried (all fail identically)

Variant A -- direct file:// URL:

[WebView2]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=WebView2
URL=file:///#CURRENTPATH#index.html
W=240
H=420
X=0
Y=0
Clickthrough=2

Variant B -- documented virtual-host approach:

[WebView2]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=WebView2
HostPath=#CURRENTPATH#
HostSecurity=1
HostOrigin=1
URL=index.html
W=240
H=420
X=0
Y=0
Clickthrough=2

Both produce the exact same immediate Not running status.

Diagnostics that rule out the obvious causes

• Runtime not installed? No -- verified present and current (path above).
• Silently crashing? No -- %TEMP%\RainmeterWebView2\EBWebView\Crashpad\reports\ (Chromium's own crash-dump folder) is empty after every failed attempt. The Crashpad scaffolding folders do get created (EBWebView, Extensions, etc.), so something starts, but no crash report is ever written.
• Stale config / cached failure? No -- reproduces after a full Unload -> Load cycle, not just a live Refresh.
• URL/path issue? No -- both the raw file:// and the documented virtual-host (HostPath/HostOrigin) configurations fail identically and instantly.

This points at the plugin's WebView2 controller/environment creation failing to complete (or its async callback never firing) rather than anything in skin configuration -- possibly a threading/message-pump interaction issue between Rainmeter's plugin model and WebView2's async initialization APIs.

Would help

Any pointers on:

• Whether measure creation needs to happen on a specific thread/message loop that Rainmeter's plugin lifecycle doesn't naturally provide
• Whether there's a way to get more verbose logging out of the plugin itself (beyond Rainmeter's own log) to see where initialization is stalling
• Whether this is a known issue with a particular WebView2 Runtime channel/version combination