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

Anonymous
2013-10-18T05:50:08+00:00

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

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Microsoft Store

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Anonymous
2013-10-19T03:11:59+00:00

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
2013-10-19T00:03:14+00:00

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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  1. Anonymous
    2013-10-21T14:43:19+00:00

    The current location is occupied :/ ,but thanks for trying to help :)

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-11-02T21:29:58+00:00

    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...

    Worked! Truly fantastic.

    Anyway to get to the path I used the run app to go to %appdata% then up one time and then down to local directory. This way I didn't need any security change!

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-11-06T23:48:44+00:00

    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...

    Thank you thank you thank you. After Win8.1 update,  I basically lost access to all Apps (grey screens everywhere) and once recovered my PC from the last backup nearly all the apps needed repairing (btw weird double installs for each app - first install fails, second one works). but I had 6 that either 1) no longer existed in App Store 2) equally weird names like "ms-resource:DisplayName" or 3) said app can't open and store couldn't repair. Been looking for days trying to find answers until came across yours via a link on another site, did your suggestions and it worked. And yes finding them was a process of checking off the working apps until I found app folders that weren't listed under All Apps as the names can be cryptic or need logic.

    However I needed to do a couple of extra things to finally make them completely disappear.

    1. I had to delete the folder of the bad app too, not just the shortcut in it.
    2. I had to go to the store, swipe to get settings and then go to App Updates. I then did both Check updates and did all the updates listed (may not have been related but just in case).
    3. Tapped Sync Licences to get everything "clean" again.

    All the bad apps were gone, and I was then able to reinstall the ones I wanted again from App Store.

    Major kudos to you, and major thumbs down to Microsoft for creating such a mess with little or no info out there on causes or easy repair. The App Store Troubleshooter was useless here.

    How Windows users with no IT skills deal with this type of thing is beyond me....

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