Restore Windows 8 built-in Apps

I just ran into an issue, where none of the built-in apps in Windows 8 was able to run. That including “Change PC Settings” accessed from the Charms Bar.

The event logs was showing following entry:

Event 5973, Apps

Activation of app.windows.immersivecontrolpanel_cw5n1h2txyewy!microsoft.windows.immersivecontrolpanel failed with an error: This app failedto launch because of an issue with it’s license. Please try again in a moment. See the Microsoft-Windows-TWinUI/Operation log for additional information.

All the apps are stored in the profile, and something eventually broke them: %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages.

To fix them again following powershell commands can be run. (a lot of post on the internet says, that the commands has to be run from an elevated prompt. I guess that only goes, if the user already is a local admin. All apps are user-based, and doesn’t require admin privileges)

So initiate a cmd.exe as the user who’s logged on, and run these:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $Env:SystemRoot\WinStore\AppxManifest.xml
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $Env:SystemRoot\ImmersiveControlPanel\AppxManifest.xml
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $Env:SystemRoot\FileManager\AppxManifest.xml
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $Env:SystemRoot\Camera\AppxManifest.xml

 

1 thought on “Restore Windows 8 built-in Apps”

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.