Windows 10: Windows 10 apps or Store not working for some users

Hi,

I’m responsible for multiple computers for our youth work. All windows 10 computers with multiple local users (administrators). Clean installed at the beginning of January.

Windows 10 drives me kind of crazy, cause on a very regular base Store apps stop functioning. I’ve had troubles with the calculator app, the photos app and the store itself. One fine day a user starts the pc and calculator/photo or store app does not work any longer. The app appears in the search result, but it’s icon is white. And under it the text “desktop app”. I’m not kidding: the store pretends to be a desktop app.

I read some other posts on your forum about not working apps. But “my” apps think they are desktop programs.

Then not all the users on the pc have the problem. Most of the time it’s okay for one user, and for all the other users it is corrupt.

I found a work around: make a new user. And for the new user all apps are present.

But I kind of get a fulltime job creating new users and giving the user it’s documents and it’s settings back.

Does anybody know a way to PREVENT the loss of functionality of the modern apps?
Does anybody know a way to REPAIR the broken modern apps? I found some Powershell magic on the internet, but that did not help.

I’d be very grateful for any help.
Koen

:)

 

Metro apps not working for some users (Windows 10)

I tried this solution with no results. This is what I get:

Protección de recursos de Windows no encontró ninguna infracción

de integridad.

(Windows Resource Protection found no infringement integrity.)

 

Metro apps not working for some users (Windows 10)

Well, first:

I do not have this problem on my user account.

The other user accounts are facing this problem, including local account.

I tried both solutions. First, start troubleshooting gave me no result.

The second, I run the script and gave me some errors when trying to solve the problem:

Excepción al llamar a "DeleteSubKey" con los argumentos "1": "Intento de realizar una operación no válida."

En E:\Escritorios\Escritorio 1\FixInvalidPackages.ps1: 96 Carácter: 17

+ ... [Microsoft.Win32.Registry]::CurrentUser.DeleteSubKey($pat ...

+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: ) [], MethodInvocationException

+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnauthorizedAccessException

Excepción al llamar a "OpenSubKey" con los argumentos "3": "Acceso denegado al Registro solicitado."

En E:\Escritorios\Escritorio 1\FixInvalidPackages.ps1: 84 Carácter: 17

+ ... $key = [Microsoft.Win32.Registry]::CurrentUser.OpenSubKey ...

+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: ) [], MethodInvocationException

+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : SecurityException

No se puede llamar a un método en una expresión con valor NULL.

En E:\Escritorios\Escritorio 1\FixInvalidPackages.ps1: 85 Carácter: 17

+ $acl = $key.GetAccessControl()

+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: ) [], RuntimeException

+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull

I also ran the script in the user account that does not have problems and it seems to run properly.

Well, as you can see, I'm using windows in Spanish (Latin América).

 

Use this tutorial:
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3...ws-8-10-a.html

Do it on one computer first and use Step #2...To Reinstall and Re-Register All Windows Apps for Current Account Only
If it works and no ill effects, then you can use Step #3 on all the computers.

 

Hi,

Thank you for the help.
I'm now at home but I'll try it tomorrow when I'm at the youth work. First thing to check tomorrow!

I'll let you know if it works.

Koen

 

Hello KoenD, just tread carefully using the powershell thread. Powershell fix can make things worse. Build 10586 of Windows 10 doesn't play nice with it. You might be better served targeting uninstall and reinstall of individual apps. Before attempting make sure to take a system restore point so if things get worse you can restore back to it.

here is some light reading, lol

Apps - Uninstall in Windows 10 - Page 11 - Windows 10 Forums

 

Thank you very much for your post.

That's bad news. The computers are build 10586.

Store can't be uninstalled in a normal way. Calculator and Photos can't be uninstalled in a normal way either.
I once ran the Powershell command to uninstall Calculator. On that pc Store was still okay. But when I reinstalled calculator from the Store it still did not work.

I had the same experience you posted about 6 days ago.

Just got round to trying it. The command to uninstall the photos app certainly worked. I then rebooted logged back into my wife's user account and went to store to re download the photos app. This worked but upon clicking it to launch nothing happened again (as before). So unfortunately it was either a case of wait for the next photos update to see if that sprung it back to life (which could be ages) or delete her user account and then recreate it (a time consuming exercise). I went for the latter and she now has usable photos app once again. Just thought I'd share the experience in case others find themselves in a similar boat.
Cheers, Wayne

And I think I made already 100 new users. This is really NO fun.

Thank you for posting. I did not see you post from 6 days ago. Was the Photo app of your wife also thinking it was a desktop application? Or didn't you notice that?

Thanks again for the post!

 

Hi,

I tried the tutorial:
Apps - Reinstall and Re-register in Windows 8 and 10

It did not break anything (as far as I see). But it did not fix anything either.

Does anybody has another idea?

Thx a lot

 

Are all your computers fully updated ?
Including updating the Windows 10 version ?
Do they have version 10240 or 10586 ?

The current version is 10586.104
( *** there is an update that will bring the version to 10586.112. But, the update is not available in Windows Update yet. So, for safety, ignore that fact until it does show up in Windows Update.)

In case you need to know how to find out which Windows version :
In the search bar, type winver > Enter

 

Hi,
They all have 10586.104.

I think the app updates are the danger for the apps.
Monday noon on almost every computer half of the users suddenly had problems with the Store.

I checked dir "c:\program files\windowsapps" admin prompt.
And indeed, there are new Store folders from that date/time
Microsoft.WindowsStore_2016.27.2.0_neutral_split.language-XX_8wekyb3d8bbwe
Microsoft.WindowsStore_2016.27.2.0_neutral_split.scale-100_8wekyb3d8bbwe
Microsoft.WindowsStore_2016.27.2.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
Microsoft.WindowsStore_2016.272.4.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe

Yesterday I turned off automatic app update. To prevent worse. I hope it indeed prevents worse. But my users want up to date software. Of course they want. So turning off updates can't be considered as a solution.

Thank you for the post

 

I apologize for not being able to help you solving the problem.
I am sure someone will come along to help you.

Good luck.

 

Thanks a lot for trying to help!
I do hope someone knows a solution and comes along to help me.

 

Hi,

I did some study about the problem. And I know what goes wrong with those apps during their update.With command prompt as admin
dir “c:\program files\windowsapps” /a
you can see what version you have of the apps
On a pc who has (for already some time) Store troubles that is
Microsoft.WindowsStore_2015.10.13.0_neutral_split.language-xx_8wekyb3d8bbwe
Microsoft.WindowsStore_2015.10.13.0_neutral_split.scale-100_8wekyb3d8bbwe
Microsoft.WindowsStore_2015.25.24.0_neutral_split.language-xx_8wekyb3d8bbwe
Microsoft.WindowsStore_2015.25.24.0_neutral_split.scale-100_8wekyb3d8bbwe
Microsoft.WindowsStore_2015.25.24.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
Microsoft.WindowsStore_2015.2524.4.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbweAnd then regedit:
In the registry branch HKCU of the user with the broken store there are 129 references to 2015.25.22.0 instead of 2015.25.24.0.
On the same pc the user with a Store that works fine: all nice references to 2015.25.24.0
(I found some other minor differences too between the Store lines in the branches of the different users.)
Conclusion: The registry is referring to files that do not exist. The installation of the apps is not okay. It does not execute all needed modifications for all users. It only does the needed registry modifications for some users.
I verified the conclusion on other computers. I have plenty of computers to check it, and they all have wrong registry references for the user with the broken apps.

Okay … now we know what’s wrong. But how can it be solved????

Somebody an idea?

 

Hi, good analysis.. but 2015? Your earlier post gives a 2016 date.

Have you tried wsreset.exe? - resets the Store without changing account settings or deleting installed apps.
Store Cache - Clear and Reset in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
Don't think that will have any effect on your store registry entries though....probably..

Where exactly are you looking in the registry? - There are many refs in HKCU e.g.



(there are many more, but the date seems consistent)




That's the default scheduled task to update store apps.. I can only presume it updates the store too.. I don't know.
** note the trigger is both time and at logon, so you might gain some control by changing that by way of mitigation.
"One fine day a user starts the pc and calculator/photo or store app does not work any longer."
I.e. get things working, disable the 'at log on' check so the problem doesn't disrupt a user session.


I use an admin account.. presumably your users don't (FWIW). On this PC I'm using Avast, free.

 

Hi,

We have multiple computers that I have to take care of. The one I used for the analyses lost its Store quite soon. Windows was installed on it in the beginning of January. Must have lost its Store shortly after.

Wsreset … did not try it. Besides it is not only a Store problem. Computers lost Store app, Calculator. This morning discovered two pc’s each with a lost app Photos.

I’ve been looking the whole HKCU branch through. 129 references to the old number. I exported as a reg-file. Changed extension to txt and Word did the counting. 

Store is updating just like all other apps. So it also fits in that task.

All our users are admin. So that can’t cause the problem.

I’ll try wsreset when the computers are free this evening. And I’ll have a closer look at the scheduled task too. I'll post the results.

Thank you for your post.