Windows 10 Start Menu and Some Apps Stopped Working - Can't System Restore

Associate
Joined
22 Jul 2004
Posts
1,331
Hi, my Windows 10 menu was working previously, but then certain apps started not opening and they had an exclamation mark next to them, so I looked that up on Google and came to a page that suggested entering this into Powershell:
Code:
Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers |Where-Object {$_.InstallLocation -like "*SystemApps*"} | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

So I did that, and now Windows Start menu won't open at all.

I tried system restoring back to a known good installation which would have fixed both issues, but it doesn't work. After a reboot it informs me:
Code:
System Restore failed while restoring the directory from the restore point.

Source: AppxStaging
Destination: %ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps
An unspecified error occurred during System Restore. (0x80070091)

So then I read something about renaming the WindowsApps folder in Program Files after taking ownership and granting permissions. I attempt that, renaming WindowsApps to WindowsApps.old, but I get a black screen on Windows Startup, so I can only access System Restore from Recovery. It still doesn't work due to an unspecified error, so I have to rename WindowsApps back to its original name so I can get back into Windows and... the start menu still won't work and I have numerous Event Log errors such as:

Code:
Unable to start a DCOM Server: Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_1.10.7.17134_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy!CortanaUI as Unavailable/Unavailable. The error:
"5"
Happened while starting this command:
"C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\SearchUI.exe" -ServerName:CortanaUI.AppXa50dqqa5gqv4a428c9y1jjw7m3btvepj.mca

I have a drive clone, but it only goes back to pre-Spring Update so I don't want to use it if I don't have to.
 
Associate
Joined
7 Mar 2005
Posts
1,630
I had a similar issue with an earlier build of Windows 10, can't recall which one. After trying reinstalling all apps via powershell, resetting search etc. what finally worked for me was running an in place upgrade of the same Windows build which seemed to repair the installation.
 
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