Microsoft Store not opening; can't reinstall [0x80073CF6, 0x80073CFC]

Question

Using Windows 10 Home, 64bit, version 21H1 (now updated to 21H2; same issue), OS build: 19043.1706. I have tried many things but none of them work

1. Microsoft Store doesn't even appear in Settings>Apps
2. WSReset.exe, wsreset multiple times via Start>Run and restarted
3. Ran sfc /scannow as an administrator
4. Ran various DISM scan and repair, restore commands as an administrator
5. Used Tweaking.com - Windows Repair tool 27.01 Repair Windows App Store and 27.02 Repair Windows app store (completely reset app store), restarted afterwards
6. Used AppxBundle file to install an app manually through powershell and by double-clicking on file, this was the error I was getting:

App installation failed with error message: Deployment Add operation with target volume C: on Package Microsoft.Windows.Photos_2019.19041.20110.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe from: (Microsoft.Windows.Photos_2019.19041.20110.0_neutral___8wekyb3d8bbwe.AppxBundle) failed with error 0x8000FFFF. See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=235160 for help diagnosing app deployment issues. (0x8000ffff)

7. Used various powershell command to re-register, reinstall Microsoft Store app. Errors again:

Add-AppxPackage : Deployment failed with HRESULT: 0x80073CF6, Package could not be registered. error 0x80073CFC: While processing the request, the system failed to register the windows.integrityExtension extension due to the following error: The application cannot be started. Try reinstalling the application to fix the problem. . NOTE: For additional information, look for [ActivityId] 3ad2af6f-6d46-0004-c3c5-d23a466dd801 in the Event Log or use the command line Get-AppPackageLog -ActivityID 3ad2af6f-6d46-0004-c3c5-d23a466dd801 At line:1 char:1

• Add-AppxPackage -register "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.Win ...
• CategoryInfo : WriteError: (C:\Program File...ppxManifest.xml:String) [Add-AppxPackage], IOException
• FullyQualifiedErrorId: DeploymentError,Microsoft.Windows.Appx.PackageManager.Commands.AddAppxPackageCommand

...Nothing of this has worked.

Please don't tell me I have to completely reinstall and reset Windows because of this minor problem. I've heard it enough on Microsoft forums (Microsoft Community) as the first answer and solution to everything...

Answer 1

I faced these same errors (0x80073CF3, 0x80073CF6, 0x80073CFC, Purgecaches) the other day, and it took few hours to understand how to fix it.

TL;DR - for me the issue was incorrect dependency version of VCLibs in AppManifest for Windows Store. Setting it to correct version made everything work.

I faced this issues when trying to install WSL2, after that failed with uninformative errors I followed the advices and made wsreset and that is where all began. General idea across the net is to perform a bunch of general purpose checks like wsreset, sfc, dism, reinstall via powershell and so on. Nothing helped on its own (I not so crazy to reinstall Windows).

After trying everything I started to dig deeper and finally found the issue: AppManifest.xml for WindowsStore has VCLib dependency version 14.0.30704.0, which was missing in WindowsApps folder. Fortunately, other version of VCLibs was present.

So, if the symptoms are that you Windows Store is opening and instantly closing, or showing Purgecaches error, or do nothing, you can try to fix it my way. In case Windows Store missing, suprisingly working fix for it is to download XBox from website and install it with option to install Windows Store. It helped to restore Windows Store files, but didn't fixed errors (at least for me).

So in case you're going to fix dependencies, you need:

1. Try XBox fix above first, it may help. DO NOT START start with Remove-AppxPackage/Add-AppxPackage and other potentially destructive things.

2. Open AppManifest.xml for Windows Store (Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsStore_22311.1401.2.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\AppxManifest.xml). Check which version of VCLib dependency listed.

3. Go to WindowsApps folder and check if version from #3 is present. If it is, then the fix is not relevant unfortunately. If it's not, but other version is here, then the actual fix starts. If there are no VCLib, try XBox fix first.

4. TAKE BACKUP of Windows Store apps in case you messed up something.

5. Take ownership of AppManifest.xml and Windows Store folder.

   takeown /f Microsoft.WindowsStore_22310.1401.8.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe icacls Microsoft.WindowsStore_22310.1401.8.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe /grant {YourUserName}:F takeown /f .\AppxManifest.xml icacls .\AppxManifest.xml /grant {YourUserName}:F

6. Most probable you won't able to directly edit and save AppManifest.xml after that (I wasn't) but it allows to copy-paste folder, so I copied whole Windows Store folder to other location, edited it there, and then copied back to WindowsApps, substituting files with my edited version.

7. Open your copy of AppManifest.xml, and change version of Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00 and Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00.UWPDesktop to what is present in your WindowsApps folder.

8. Copy folder with AppManifest.xml back to WindowsApps.

9. Optionally reload PC, althoug I didn't.

10. Run Windows Store.

For me after this it launched, and performed self update and restored correct version of VCLib. If it's not, you may try Remove-AppxPackage/Add-AppxPackage now to restore it.

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers Microsoft.WindowsStore | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppXPackage Microsoft.WindowsStore -AllUsers -Verbose | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -Verbose -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}