Windows 10: Windows start button and search bar unresponsive, apps from microsoft store are all missing

Nothing happens when click on start button or the search bar right-clicking the start button still brings up the options, otherwise I cant browse through my applications from the start button. I have specific apps pinned on my taskbar, but those that were installed from the Microsoft Store eg. Spotify, Skype, To-do list have gone missing. It's just an empty space where they should be. Tried to look for those apps via file explorer, turns out all their exe files are corrupted. Pretty sure the issue has something to do with Microsoft Store services as other apps are still working fine.


Any ideas how to fix this?

:)

 

Microsoft is purging a lot of low quality apps from the Windows Store

"Microsoft is sending emails to some Windows Store developers informing them that their apps have been removed from the Store for violating its quality standards."

"Neowin reports that app developers have been receiving these emails over the past couple of days:

In its latest review of the Store, Microsoft is evaluating if the published apps are good enough to be listed in the Windows Store. This includes publicly available apps as well as private beta apps. Additionally, Microsoft is also asking developers to delete any promotional campaigns for their apps to prevent advertising charges. Similarly, app name reservations are also being nullified; which means that if your app is unpublished, there's no guarantee that you'll be able to republish it under the same name.

Officially, the policies for the Microsoft Store says that apps must have "distinct and informative metadata" and "provide a valuable and quality user experience". There are also some specific standards that must be in the apps, including having a name that is not similar to another app or device, along with offering a description that is accurate about its features and functions.

There have certainly been many Windows Store users who have complained over the years about the large number of apps published that are clones of other apps or ones that are simply poorly made. Hopefully, this new move by Microsoft will help to curb these issues, at least for now."

Microsoft to remove low quality apps from Windows Store

 

Missing icons for Trusted Microsoft Store Apps in Start Menu search and taskbar

Help!

The icons for my Trusted Microsoft Store apps are missing from my start menu when I search for them. They are also missing from my tasbar. I alo notice that icons are missing for files that are associated with these apps are missing.

Any idea on how to solve this?
<br/><br/>

When Using Search

Searching in the start menu won't show the icon for Trusted Microsoft Store apps. Other app icons are visible in the search.<br/>










<br/>In start menu

The icons for the store apps are visible in the menu when not searching:




<br/>Not visible in taskbar either

Here you can see that both the Slack and Store app icons aren't visible on the taskbar:<br/>




<br/>No file icons for associated apps

My images are associated with Windows Photos (also a Microsoft Trusted Store App). The aren't showing their icons.




<br/>What I've done so far

I've been searching Google and the MS fora for hours now. What I've tried so far:

• Running all Windows Updates
  
• Upgrading to Windows 10 Fall Creators Update
  
• Clearing the general icon cache by deleting C:\Users\[snip]\AppData\Local\IconCache.db
  
• Clearing Explorer icon cache by deleting C:\Users\[snip]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\IconCache*.db
  
• Re-reregistring all Windows store apps with PowerShell by running: Get-AppXPackage | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}
  
• Running Disk Clean Up and choosing Clean Up System Files
  
• Running WSReset.exe
  

All to no avail. I hope you guys know a solution.

 

HyperSLI (Enabling SLI on non-sli motherboards)

To turn off windows updates in windows 7 follow these steps:

Click the start button, in the search box type in 'windows updates', click on 'windows update'
in the search results list, in the left side of the windows update window click 'change settings'
then in the option bar select 'Never check for updates'.