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

Many Many Thanks & Mahalos to all of you who have found ways to solve this windows store and apps problem and shared your advice and solutions. With your help I've fix my computer and I am happy again ..... Jon

 

Hi KoenD,

I am experiencing the same frustrating problems with my PC... But creating new profiles for me is not a piece of cake with all the settings per profile/apps...

Please keep us posted if you find a solution since; Microsoft seems to be ignoring all those problems...

Thank you

 

No real solution yet. Indeed very frustrating constantly creating new users.

 

I stumbled upon this thread via google search as I also am experiencing a similar issue. Even though no real solution has been found yet, I do feel better considering that this is an issue affecting many users, and therefore not my fault but that of Windows.

I bought a new laptop for myself and my mom wants to occasionally use it too, so we need two accounts for my stuff and her stuff.

When I first set up the PC, I set up a local account (administrator privileges) under just my first name, just like things used to be in Windows 7 and prior.

Then I wanted to set up an account for my mom, under her first name. The thing is, Windows 10 asks for a Microsoft account, i.e. an e-mail address, so basically I made a mistake and gave her e-mail address and set it up (also admin). I then realized only her e-mail address is displayed instead of her name, which is annoying. At this point I'd like to mention I had made a restore point.

So when I logged into her account for the first time, it changed to her full name (as registered in her microsoft account), which makes it look better, but I was bugged that I couldnt edit out her last name. However, this is not the main issue.

The main issue is, after I logged in to her account, and the set up screens showed up ("Hi", "Getting things ready" etc.) I thought all was fine and logged out again. Then I logged back into my own account.

And guess what? All the microsoft apps (Windows Store apps, I guess) no longer work in mine:

For example, the Calculator doesn't work, the Mail app doesnt work, the Alarms & Clock doesnt work, the maps app doesnt work, the windows store doesnt open, and when I double click a picture, I get "the remote procedure call failed" error, so the picture viewer doesnt work either.

What the hell is going on? I restarted but my apps still did not work (interestingly, they did on her account).

I did a system restore to the point BEFORE I had logged into her account the first time, and lo and behold all my apps were functional again.

Seriously what the heck?

Right now this means I can scrap the idea of having an additional account on the laptop, as when someone logs in, it messes up my account's apps.

In the meanwhile I have tried several permutations, always using my previously done restore point as starting position.

1) as mentioned, tried it with her microsoft account: logged in for the first time, watched the greeting text, then looked around in her desktop, everything checks out, her apps were working, logged out, logged back into my own account and my apps werent working, not even after restart

2) Went back to restore, removed her microsoft account, restarted to make sure, set up a local account for her with admin privileges, same procedure as above, same issue.

3) Basically the same as 2) but also deleted the C: \Users\[Her name]\ folder to make sure everything was gone before creating a new account. Same issue.

4) Tried changing her microsoft account's admin privileges to a standard account. Same issue. I guess I could try the permutation of setting her up with a local account with standard privileges but I'm slowly getting tired of all this experimentation. Unchecked "update apps automatically" in the Windows store as well.

At this point I like to mention I use a cleaner tool called Advanced System Care by Iobit that, among other things, cleans my registry. I hope using that didnt somehow mess things up in my registry.

I did try the sfc /scannow command and everything was normal, no errors detected.

I googled a bit about apps not working and one popular solution was to copy paste some code into the windows power shell. I tried that once (I can always system restore so no damange is done) and I got a lot of RED text meaning something messed up and obviously it didnt fix the problem.

 

I can only sympathise. MS and native apps are screwed up when trying to use multi user accounts. Everytime there is a native app or store update it is Russian roulette as to whether they still work on other user accounts. Always take a restore point before a native app update (and keep the app updates on manual rather than auto). Basically if a native app updates fails but then works second time round - then those apps will prob be screwed for other users. Windows 10 is borked in that respect. Only way to fix is delete and re create the affected user account (a major pain) or try a system restore point and try the app updates again keeping fingers crossed they 'complete' first time !

 

Since the Windows Store won't open, I googled a bit on how to make it work again.

Tried wsreset.exe, didnt work.

Tried deleting the store cache, didnt work either.

Of course, a repair install might solve the issue but I might lose my restore point when attempting that, not to mention all installed programs.

Obviously a clean install will fix everything (it has to!) but then I lose all programs, settings and personal files (the latter are backed on on an external HDD, but the hassle of having to move everything back to my laptop and reinstall all programs is too much headache).

Right now what I can do is just use my one main account and let my mom use my account as well, with her data being accessible via the Users/[Hername]/ folder tree. That way our personal files are separated but we still share one account.

I guess I'll be sticking with this option until Windows fix this with an update.

I am gonna be buying a new desktop pc for gaming soon anyway. And when I do that, I will try getting this whole multiple user accounts business sorted out from day 1 itself. That way it is a lot easier to do factory resets etc. if something messes up since I have no data installed yet.

 

An in-place repair install keeps all your programs, most settings, loses changed language, loses restore points ('cos it's a fresh Windows installation, turns system restore off..

If you buy Laplink PCMover (or Zinstall) you can save all your installed programs and optionally data and some settings, and have all of that (or selectively) automatically reinstalled when you do a clean install.

 

There is another option, which is set up her account as usual, come back to mine where the store is now corrupted, then create a 3rd account (gonna be my new one) and basically transfer all contents of my old account to the 3rd one, then rename the account's name to my old account's after I have moved over and deleted my old account from there. I got the idea from this link:

Fix Windows Issues by Creating a New User Account

The thing is, if I am still not happy, can the system restore take me back to my original account?

 

That might be a good plan. I should think a restore point will take you back. Better still is to take a system image, either via Windows or use macrium. An image takes a while depending on how much data but it's re assuring to have. Then you know that you'll be back exactly where you were.

I dont know know if your situation is unique. I struggle to remember my first setup. We have 4 family accounts. Mine as head of household and admin, then 3 family standard accounts. From memory, logging into those after my initial setup did not corrupt my apps or store. But I have had big issues with native apps on the 3 standard accounts breaking subsequently. The pattern as far as I can tell, is I check for updates on my admin account, say one for photos is available. Then I click to update it. Photos completes the update, the app works fine for me and the other user accounts. However, on rare occasions the app update doesn't work as intended. Say I click to update it, then for some reason it gets stuck or fails. So I re-try it. It then completes. I launch the photos app in my user account, it works just fine. However on the other user accounts it may no longer work. So it's Russian roulette. As if the native apps and store tries to update for all user accounts in that one hit and it messes things up if the app update doesn't go smoothly first time. Third party apps such as Facebook do not suffer this because the app is specific to the user account it was installed on. If that makes sense. System restore always fixes this whereupon can re attempt the app updates in the hope that this time it will update first time. It's for this reason I do not allow automatic updates to happen as that way I can keep a close eye on things. I'd hate to think auto app updates happening on the fly in the background could be rendering native apps useless for the other users without me knowing. I would then not be able to count on system restore reliably as I wouldn't easily know when an app went wonky. It is an epic fail that there is no reliable way to repair native apps. That powershell command that I have seen many times cannot be relied upon either as it has unpredictable results and can make things much much worse.

But whatever way we look at this the bottom line is the native apps process is seriously bugged and MS has screwed this right up. Its behaviour cannot be trusted. It's the primary reason I dislike Windows 10 and pine for the days of Windows 7. Every boot of Windows 10 breeds uncertainty as to what might happen. And every check for updates in the store brings dread, sitting in hope that MS has decided not to chuck a native app update down the pipe as I just cannot trust their OS. I get little spare time to use my PC as it is without having to waste time worrying and doing system restores.

i had another laptop with Windows 10 but had such horrible issues with cortana, the store, logging into native apps (among other things). The issues were a bit different to the above so it's another story but it was enough to make me return the laptop to manufacturer for a refund and make my first ever foray into the world of macs.

Deep down I will always prefer Windows but the Windows 10 experience and it's unpredictability and bugs has been hard to take. The MS accounts, native apps and it's attempt to no longer be a proper desktop OS instead acting as some horrible hybrid phone/tablet/desktop OS I'm sure at the root of it all. Maybe in a few years once it matures it might be much better but as a user I have no interest in beta testing or tolerating the early gremlins. Unfortunately there is no getting away from Windows 10, it's being forced in our faces pretty hard by MS and I guess before long certain software/games will no longer run on older Windows so 10 will became a necessity. We can only hope in time MS gets this right. Trouble is they seem hellbent on flooding change, features rather than addressing bugs - i'd rather a reliable OS over constant new builds with new features. More changes brings new bugs ontop of old old bugs that don't necessarily get addressed anytime soon. At the moment it's a stress inducing OS. I do want it to succeed and be a good OS, hopefully one day!

anyway I got side tracked here into a big anti-Windows 10 grumble which I apologise for - sometimes just good to get it off your chest but I hope you find that solution alluded to way back at the start makes things more palatable. I'd be interested to hear how you get on.

 

I hope it's okay to reply because I'm having a similar problem. My weeks new Lenovo with Windows 10 was working fine until today. I see from Notifications that there was an update last night. Perhaps that was the instigator or not. Anyway, now, my Windows store tile is a blank blue square. It won't load. Neither will groove music, or photos. Pictures app loads but it's a blank tile, too. Using the method you describe sounds risky. And Nov 15th (date of your post) was a relatively long time ago in computer world terms. Has anything changed - new patches, or whatnot? I bought this computer to replace my 7 year-old Lenovo with Vista - still running ok. Thanks so much for any help.

 

I did a bit more digging after reading this thread since last post was 3 weeks ago and while it doesn't appear it worked for me M$ has acknowledged the issue (70008) and has an online repair troubleshooter for those with and without multiple accounts too now.

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/window...re-not-working

with multiple Accounts too ( I have a unused elevated Admin account ...just incase )

It couldn't fix it 1st run for me so I rerun with the advance button checked (autofix) and it said it was fixed but not in my case it appears. 3rd run said there wasn't an issue.

click on the this troubleshooter link under the pic.

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/window...unch-windows10

 

@rterrel10, have you updated to Windows 10 Version 1511 (OS Build 10586.420)? It's currently the latest, should fix any issues. You can find out which version of Windows you are on by typing "winver" without quotation marks in the startmenu