If you have already upgraded to Windows 10 on your PC, then you might know about the flexibility Windows Store apps offers to a consumer.
It is the certainly one of the places where you visit daily either looking to download/update your favorite apps or just searching for that one app you just want to try out for some reason.
But sometimes, you might face an unknown problem/error which makes you bang your head, just because right at that moment it stops working and acts weird. As an average user, you can’t do much rather than trying and applying tweaks on your end to make it work.
In order to make things easier for you, we will share some tips on how to troubleshoot Windows Store or the Windows Store apps installed on your machine.
Resetting the Store app (or a particular app)
First of all we will try to Reset the Store itself if it is causing problems inherent to it. This method applies only for PC running on the Windows 10 Anniversary Update (14393.0 or newer)
For this:
- On your PC, go to Settings (Win + I)
- Click on System and from the pane to the left, choose Apps & features.
- Scroll down to the Store app and click it.
- Click on Advanced options.
- On the next screen, you might notice a Reset button with a small description above it. It also reveals what the app size and data it has consumed so far.
- Click on Reset and then again click on “Reset” for the pop-up.
- This will reset the app including all the preferences associated with the store, and the sign-in details.
- Once done, check back again at the store to see whether this has solved the problem.
Please note this procedure will NOT uninstall the app from your system. In the same way, you can Reset any Windows Store app if it is causing issues.
Windows Store Apps – Troubleshooter
This one is not quite visible at once for an average Windows 10 user. But Microsoft has put a built-in troubleshooter app for Windows Store apps in Windows 10 OS.
Here is how to get to it:
- Hit Start and begin typing “troubleshoot”, pick the one (best match) that shows Control Panel on it.
- Once you are in, on the left hand side, there is a hyperlink “View all”. Click on it to reveal all possible choices.
- Scroll all the way down from the list, and look for Windows Store apps. Click on it to open the troubleshooter.
- Click on Advanced options and make sure Apply repairs automatically is checked.
- Click Next, and the troubleshooter begins fixing the store apps.
- If it has found some problem, it will report and offer solutions as well.
Clear Store Cache
When you download/install an app from the store, it stores certain pieces of information in what is known as cache. Sometimes, this cache could be the main issue one could get while working with apps in the store. Some apps won’t download, others stop halfway while updating, plagued by some unknown error. And some of them, stop at “acquiring license…” screen.
Clearing cache in this situation (or all the weird situations), can prove to be a nice workaround. Let us see how to do it.
- Press Windows Key + R to open the Run Window
- Type wsreset.exe and hit Enter key on the keyboard.
- When you do, a blank command window appears but there is nothing to get afraid of, it is simply running processes in the background.
- When the command window shuts down automatically, go and try out whether the store has been fixed or not.
These were some of the neat little tricks one could use while working with a Windows 10 PC. I hope you will make good use of it, if ever the Windows Store causes trouble for you.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
