Windows 10: Microsoft Apps Fail to Open - all with the same errors

Windows apps that used to work fine, now all fail with the same errors. I've spent hours on the Internet researching a solution but have found nothing that works. I've tried replacing the kernelbase.dll file, resetting the apps, uninstalling and reinstalling and numerous other things I can no longer remember - all with no success. Seems to be a problem many folks have, though I don't see any solutions. Appreciate any help!


Here are the errors I receive using Microsoft To Do app as my example:


Event 1000 from Windows Logs / Application:

Faulting application name: Todo.exe, version: 2.29.2010.14003, time stamp: 0x5f86c986

Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 10.0.19041.572, time stamp: 0x1183946c

Exception code: 0xc000027b

Fault offset: 0x000000000010b65c

Faulting process id: 0x55dc

Faulting application start time: 0x01d6af394553161a

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.Todos_2.29.32883.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\Todo.exe

Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNELBASE.dll

Report Id: 898add08-fd61-4b1e-ba74-3950d4c4813e

Faulting package full name: Microsoft.Todos_2.29.32883.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

Faulting package-relative application ID: App


Event 5961 from Microsoft / Windows / Apps / Microst-Windows-TWinUI/Operational:

Activation for Microsoft.Todos_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App failed. Error code: Unknown HResult Error code: 0x80040904. Activation phase: COM App activation

:)

 

Mail app will not open on 10041.

Hello Adam,

This is the suggested solution below if you haven't already tried it.

In this Windows 10 build 10041, the Mail, Calendar, and People apps may be broken due to a licensing issue with the Store Beta. To get these apps working again, you need to follow these steps:

• Open powershell as administrator
• Run the command Get-appxprovisionedpackage –online | where-object {$_.packagename –like “*windowscommunicationsapps*”} | remove-appxprovisionedpackage –online
• Re-install Mail, People and Calendar from the Store (green tile)

 

Can I customize the list of suggest apps in the "Open with" menu?

Well, I hope this helps the OP - it took a while. I tried 'Default Program Editor' (DPE) and it did indeed add (or remove) items, but when I tried to specifically add Word to pdf opening, it failed - it went through the motions, but nothing happened. So I started again, playing with settings for opening .doc files. This seemed to work: initially in explorer I had 3 programs appear in the 'default' list that pops up on a rt-click>open-with:



and this is what the relevant bit of the Registry showed:



Don't ask me why just 3 of those 8 (a to h) programs show up (maybe the 'instant' list is limited to three? - no, see later) - anyway, I used DPE to remove Wordpad from the list: when saving the edit as a REG file, this is what I got:

Code:

and the result in Explorer was:



and the registry now shows:



Note how item 'g' from the list has been removed (it seems there is no issue with having a letter missing). I then messed about trying to open a .doc file with various other programs, and they all started to appear in the 'instant' list:




So I thought 'well, that is easy - just open a pdf once in Word and it should appear'. So back to trying to open PDFs: but however many times I tried, Word would never appear.



even though there were any number of entries in the Registry 'Open With' list, including Word:



So what did DPE make of this - well, it showed some of the entries:



Although Word is shown, it doesn't appear on a rt-click. Its entry can be removed, but that doesn't help. So my attention was drawn to the existence of another folder below 'OpenWithList', namely 'OpenWithProgids', and that contained a specific ref to Sumatra (my preferred program for PDFs). Looking back at the same entry for .docx, I found this:



so I added an identical Word.Document.12 ref to the list for PDFs:



I think IrfanView is there as it got added during my experiments! I now get this in Explorer:


Hurrah! I then tried to use DPE to remove the redundant entries, and got this as a .REG file:
Code:

But when i merge that with the registry, the IrfanView item does not get deleted:



and as seen in the registry:



so I deleted it by hand, and at last have the entries I (or rather, the OP) want:




Note that my manually added reg entry is of type Binary', as there seems to be no way to add a value of type 'None'.

So it seems that DPE cannot cope with entries in the 'Progids' list, and something makes some programs fall into that list, rather than the 'openwithlist'. I am sorry for any typos above, or pictures in the wrong place - can't be bothered to check it too thoroughly. Hope it helps someone!

atb, Martin

 

Apps not opening

Hi Saba,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community.

I suggest you to run the troubleshooter for Windows apps issue.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/run-the-troubleshooter-for-windows-apps

If the issue still persists, then follow the below steps.

• 
  Run these commands:
  
  powershell
  
  Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers |Where-Object {$_.InstallLocation -like "*SystemApps*"} | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}
  
• 
  Check to be sure this command ran, showed a blue progress indicator and then returns to the prompt.
  
  • 
    If you see a red error, then the command may have been typed or pasted incorrectly, or there may be a larger problem with Windows 10. Try again.
    
• 
  Check to see if the issue is resolved.
  
  • 
    If not, restart the PC. In this case try as a new administrator user account.
    
  • 
    If the new user also fails, go up to the steps for “3. If EITHER command does not show…” above. We need to repair Windows.
    

Hope it helps.

Thanks