Having issue getting the Modern Apps to run after upgrading to Windows 8.1 from Windows 8? Just getting a blank screen when the app starts, and clicking the blankness goes back to the Start screen? Can’t even get into the Store?

Follow these steps (references for all steps are at the bottom):

Repair any corrupt or incomplete Windows files

1. Go to the Start screen (Windows key, or bottom left hot-corner)
2. Type CMD
3. Right click Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator
4. You’ll now have a black command prompt window with a blinking cursor
5. Ensure it says “Administrator” in the window name
6. Type (or copy paste):
   sfc /scannow
7. Hit enter
8. This should hopefully fix and bung system files and may take some time, so go watch some TV or something 🙂
9. After this, it may want to restart, if it doesn’t restart anyway

This step may do nothing for you, but its still worth doing as the first step to ensure there are no malformed Windows files.

Repair the Windows App Store

1. Open registry editor typing regedit.exe in the Start screen
2. Browse to the registry key at
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Software
Classes
Local Settings
software
microsoft
windows
currentversion
appmodel
repository
packages
3. Right click on the “packages” key/folder and bring up the “Permissions” tab
4. Click the “Advanced” button located at the bottom right corner
5. Check to see the account name that shows up as the “Owner” (this is the first line of text on the “advanced security settings” dialog for the “packages” key)
6. It should say “SYSTEM”. (For me this showed the built-in local Administrators group)
7. If it is any other account, click on the “Change” button next to it. If it is already System, close all open windows and skip to step 10
8. Type:
   SYSTEM
   in the “Select user” dialog. If “Multiple Names Found” window comes up, select the row for “SYSTEM”
9. Click OK on all open dialogs to close
10. Follow the first 5 steps above to open an Administrator Command Prompt
11. Type (or copy paste, all characters should come across clean):
    powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $Env:SystemRoot\WinStore\AppxManifest.xml
12. Hit Enter
13. Bring up the Start screen, and search Store (or click it if its visible)

If the Store now successfully starts, we can continue!

Clear the Windows App Store cache

1. In the Start screen, search for:
   wsreset.exe
2. Hit Enter to run it
3. It should load the store. It won’t display anything (in Windows 8.1) but it has now cleared the App Store cache (temporary files)

Reinstall the built-in Windows Apps

1. If you still have the Administrator Command Prompt open, good, otherwise open another one and…
2. Type
   powershell
3. Type
   ((Get-ChildItem “HKLM:SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Appx\AppxAllUserStore\InboxApplications”) | Get-ItemProperty).Path | Add-AppxPackage -Register -DisableDevelopmentMode
4. Reboot now if you don’t care about 3rd party apps, or wait until the next place

Fix 3rd Party Apps

1. From command prompt (again), run
   wmic useraccount get “name,sid”
2. Copy the SID that relates to your name, you’ll need this in the next steps
3. Open regedit.exe again
4. Navigate to the following registry location
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Appx\AppxAllUserStore\
5. In this folder/key you should see another key with the same structure as the SID you copied above. Find the exact SID that is yours, and delete it.
6. Reboot for the last time.

When you come back up this time, load up the store and it should either be installing you apps again for you, or simply go re-install them from “Apps not currently on this computer” in the My Apps section (right click to get into My Apps).

 

Sources:

• http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-windows_store/all-modern-apps-fail-to-start-after-windows-81/a80793c7-c214-43ec-9ca9-5c758f9ad840?page=2
  
• http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/c4147bcc-a430-43fe-b4e9-f999552568da/81-store-apps-wont-load?forum=w8itprogeneral