Broken modern app shortcuts in Windows 8.1 after updating from Windows 8

Anonymous

EDIT: See Page 3 for the solution to this problemNOTE: Please click the "Me too" link to the right of this post if you experiencing this issue so that Microsoft and Avast take notice of it. Thanks.

Short Story: Avast 2014 appears to interfere with the app shortcut cleanup process that occurs during the 8 -> 8.1 update. Also, Windows 8.1 really needs an easy/elegant way to remove dead Modern app shortcuts as you can with dead desktop app shortcuts

I updated from Windows 8 Pro x64 with Media Center on my 2 machines (Ivy Bridge Core i3 & i7) via the Windows Store and have had multiple broken/dead app shortcuts in All Apps on both machines as seen in the red rectangle below (direct image link):

When I attempt to launch any of the apps by clicking the shortcuts, I get the following message (the "Microsoft.Camera" part is specific to 1 of the shortcuts I tried) (direct image link):

Clicking the Go to the Store link only produces this message in the Windows Store app (direct image link):

Returning to All Apps and right clicking any of the dead shortcuts to remove it exposes no such option. There's no way to uninstall the app (it's probably gone already gone anyway) and also no way to remove the dead shortcut. As you can see below. the only options are Pin to Start and Customize (direct image link):

Does anyone know how to remove the dead shortcuts? I've tried going to *C:\Program Files\WindowsApps*, but access to that is denied and I can't find any way to give myself permissions for it. The offending shortcuts aren't listed in Control Panel -> Programs and Features, C:\Users<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs, or C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu either. Microsoft's own Apps Diagnostic utility doesn't fix it, and neither does syncing app licenses within the Windows Store app.

Help? Any ideas? TIA

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

OK -- I FIXED IT.

Through a lot of trial and error.

Head to users/user/appdata/local/microsoft/windows/applicationshortcuts

Once there do a search for each file within application shortcuts using the search bar in the top right of the explorer, you might need to play with the search terms. For example, mine found the photo app when I searched 'modern' but not 'photo'. Odd.

I used the following terms, camera, microsoft ((for skydrive)), bing, modern.

You need to delete the little white shortcut tile (I had to adjust security settings first and give myself permission to delete within the app shortcuts file, but Windows will guide you through it.)

For the chat app, just delete and reinstall the calendar/people/mail group and its gone.

Hope it works for you guys too...

this worked like a charm, thanks

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

OK -- I FIXED IT.

Through a lot of trial and error.

Head to users/user/appdata/local/microsoft/windows/applicationshortcuts

Once there do a search for each file within application shortcuts using the search bar in the top right of the explorer, you might need to play with the search terms. For example, mine found the photo app when I searched 'modern' but not 'photo'. Odd.

I used the following terms, camera, microsoft ((for skydrive)), bing, modern.

You need to delete the little white shortcut tile (I had to adjust security settings first and give myself permission to delete within the app shortcuts file, but Windows will guide you through it.)

For the chat app, just delete and reinstall the calendar/people/mail group and its gone.

Hope it works for you guys too...

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64 additional answers

Anonymous

2013-10-19T03:52:12+00:00

The odd thing is, everything I can find online this is linked to Avast... which I do not have.

AMD A450 - 1.65 Ghz

Windows 8.1 x64

McAfee Antivirus Plus
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Anonymous

2013-10-19T03:49:25+00:00

This worked perfectly for me. Actually, if you sort the folder by date, the oldest subfolders contain the problematic shortcuts. Moving them out of the folder also removes them from All Apps in real time.

Just a note of caution: be sure to check after each removal that a dead shortcut was removed and not a good, valid shortcut to an app that works.

Thanks a lot for the fix, dp1985.
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Anonymous

2013-10-19T00:38:18+00:00

Interesting suggestion dp1985. I think you are on the right track, but unfortunately it did not work for me. I actually backed up everything in the "ApplicationShortcuts" directory to another location and then deleted everything in the original location you suggested (all folders & their shortcuts). I tried reinstalling an app that had previously been installed - no go. I also tried installing a brand new app, and it appeared to install correctly but 1) there was no tile and 2) the shortcut in the directory is blank, i.e. it points nowhere. Will continue to tinker, but hard to believe this was not seen during Win8.1 testing...
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