Windows 11 Base Apps Not Working At All

Hey Everyone.

Just wondering if anyone else is or has run into issues with Windows 11 base apps like Terminal, Snipping Tool, Calculator, MS Store, etc. not working out of the blue after a few days of installing Win 11?

I have tried just about everything I can think of to resolve the issue, but nothing seems to work. Even in SM the apps will not launch including Windows Help & Support.

I've tried the repair and reset options for each app without success.
I've tried the Get App Packages commands in powershell without success.
I've tried the DISM health restore without success.
I have ran the troubleshooters for apps and win update without success.
I have run SFC /scannow in SMWN and no corruption was detected.
I ran chkdsk read only in SMWN and it found errors so I set it to run chkdsk /f /r at startup and went through all five stages of fixing C: without success.
I ran Windows AIO repair tool in SMWN without success.
I've run System Mechanic Pro licensed without success.
I've run Autoruns and Highjack This without success.
I've tried renaming the SWD folder, rebooting and checking for updates (none available) without success.
I've run a temp delete batch file without success.

I've looked at installed updates and with the exception of some AMD drivers (installed on the 15th) there are only four updates installed and two of them are the April and May cumulative updates installed on the 15th of May and the apps worked fine up until this evening. They even worked earlier today and there have been no changes as far as installed or uninstalled programs or new updates.

My AV is MWB Premium and my FW is Comodo, but as I stated previously, everything worked fine for days and up until a few hours ago. I'm also running a local account.

I'm not sure what else is left to try other than SR, a PC reset or a clean install, which I would rather not do if I don't have to.

So, if anyone has any advice or insight as to what else I could try that I haven't already listed it would be greatly appreciated.

When did you install Windows 11? and basically your saying if you click on any of those apps they dont do anything?
Are they greyed out do you notiice?

imanlien2020 said:

When did you install Windows 11? and basically your saying if you click on any of those apps they dont do anything?
Are they greyed out do you notiice?

Click to expand...

Thanks for replying.

I installed Windows on the 15th.

When I click on the apps I get the message that this app can't open, and since my last post the MS Store app is no where to be found on my PC at all.

It's all very weird.

I also enabled .net framework 3.5 in Windows features, but after a reboot the issue still persists.

Your cpu being from 2012 is an indication you installed Windows 11 on unsupported hardware. Hopefully you have a Windows 10 backup of your system. In your list of troubleshooting you say you have disk errors. That would be the biggest red flag for me.

Like glasskuter, your disk errors would be my prime suspect.

I have Win11 running well on an unsupported device, a Dell laptop with a 1st gen i5 520M from 2010. So being an unsupported install is not enough on its own to explain your problems.

glasskuter said:

Your cpu being from 2012 is an indication you installed Windows 11 on unsupported hardware. Hopefully you have a Windows 10 backup of your system. In your list of troubleshooting you say you have disk errors. That would be the biggest red flag for me.

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Thanks for the reply.

You are correct. I did install Win 11 on "officially unsupported" HW.

The errors found by chkdsk were trivial and few according to event viewer logs regarding the chkdsk process. Several of them were for missing .log files and a couple orphaned files, but nothing significant or profound in nature that would cause the system to all of a sudden start having issues with only Windows built-in apps.

I just find it peculiar that there were no notification or logged events regarding the issue with the Windows apps. It was just sudden and without warning. Had I not tried using one of the apps I may have never noticed the issue. Win 11 still works fine in every aspect except those Windows base apps, but it seems to be all of them at this point.

Is there an earlier restore point since you installed Win 11...... if you had to?

If you have Samsung Magician installed, attempt to run it though it may not work either. If you can, Check S.M.A.R.T. Magician Software | Consumer Storage | Samsung Semiconductor USA

mackie said:

Is there an earlier restore point since you installed Win 11...... if you had to?

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I have manual restore points I created at certain points during the initial setup. I also have full backups through Acronis at specific intervals during setup and personalization. I'm trying to save those options as last resorts because I would like to try and figure out why this has happened.

Like Bree stated, I don't believe the unsupported HW or the very minor disk errors are a true factor as I have Win 11 running on an ASUS K55F laptop that is way older than my desktop in terms of HW and there are zero issues with Win 11 on it.

Being COMPtia A+ certified, I can't help but want to figure this out, lol. The need to TS is in my bones and it's killing me that none of the approaches I have tried have worked as they typically would.

There is nothing in event viewer to suggest that there are any major or critical issues. There are some distributed com errors and minor things like that, but those are typical and almost always show up on just about any PC periodically. No one's event viewer is completely free of errors as Windows of any version will typically have some services or processes that operate outside of specified parameters or fail in one task or another occasionally.

It's just such a weird issue in how it came about and how it only affects the Windows base apps.

glasskuter said:

If you have Samsung Magician installed, attempt to run it though it may not work either. If you can, Check S.M.A.R.T. Magician Software | Consumer Storage | Samsung Semiconductor USA

Click to expand...

I do have Samsung Magician installed. I'll give that a go since it can't hurt, but this seems more like something broken in the OS rather than a HDD issue. There is some service or process or .dll or something that is being dumb and I think it's just a matter of narrowing down where to look. However, as we all know with Windows it's like looking for a specific needle in a mountain of needles.

GenuineGemini said:

specific needle in a mountain of needles

Click to expand...

With all you have going on I believe you are correct. Try a repair install. You have nothing to lose at this point. Then if that doesn't work, bite the bullet and clean install. How to install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware - Pureinfotech

I can understand you wanting to find and fix the problem. And from your opening post, it looks like you've covered all the generic recommendstions that are mentioned for that problem. I was just looking through youtube under 'Microsoft Store is missing in Win 10 & 11' to see what others suggested, but there was nothing really different from what you've already tried. But maybe someone here has a different idea that can help you. Btw, I'm also on an unsupported pc and haven't had those problems.

Thanks for all the replies.

It is definitely a conundrum of an issue.

I found a site that has detailed info and custom scripting for removing ALL of Windows' built-in apps in Win 10, so I'm thinking I'll give that a go, then run System Mechanic to cleanup any leftovers and then reboot and try to install apps one at a time starting with MS Store and see if that changes anything.

Not sure if we're allowed to post links to other sites, but here's what I found.