Microsoft Store missing from Windows 10, can't restore, can't install apps

Hello Greengecko,

Good day! I'm John and I'll be happy to assist you today. I know this has been difficult for you, Rest assured, I'm going to do my best to help you. When was the last time it worked properly? What is your current Windows version and edition? Press Start then click Settings(Gear icon), select System then About.

Please try this if it helps.
Please make sure to uninstall the Microsoft Store and Xbox app first.

**Uninstall the Microsoft Store app:
Press Windows key + X
Click and Run Windows PowerShell as Administrator. Copy and paste the command below then press Enter.

get-appxpackage *WindowsStore* | remove-appxpackage

**Uninstall the Xbox app
Open Settings then select Apps
Under Apps and Features, find Xbox app
Click it then Uninstall

Once the two apps are uninstalled, install the Xbox app from the link below
https://aka.ms/XboxInstaller
Restart your computer then open the Xbox app
This will prompt to install the Microsoft Store app
Please check if the issue still persists.

Kindly let me know if this helps or if you have any further concerns.

Kind regards,

John DeV
Independent Advisor

Thanks! This fixed the problem for me. Installing Microsoft store from the Xbox app fixed it for me.

@John DeV, thanks again for the assistance. I was finally able to get in touch with Microsoft Support, which I was very surprised about. I always thought there was a very high cost involved, but that was not the case; there was no cost.

I just wanted to let you know that the PowerShell commands they provided did the the trick, and there were some small differences in syntax which seemed to make the difference. Please see my earlier posting (dated 06-21-2022) near the end of this thread for the commands that worked.

Thanks also to @ȘTEF and everyone else who chipped in.

Wow, how lucky you are :)

And congrats on making them work again

Well, today Windows showed a little pop-up offering product support, so I took a chance and followed the links, eventually heading over to the Windows section. There, an agent provided PowerShell commands, and within minutes the problems with Store and Photos, were resolved with the following. It appears there were some syntax errors in the original commands at the beginning of this thread, so I can confirm that these worked:

************************ SOLUTION SOLUTION SOLUTION SOLUTION SOLUTION *******************************************

Get-AppxPackage -Name "Microsoft.WindowsStore" | Remove-AppxPackage

Get-AppXPackage -allusers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

********************************************************************************************************************************

Both Microsoft Store and Photos are now working, problem solved. Thank goodness I didn't need to do another reinstallation.

I haven't done it yet..........kinda dragging my feet because it's going to be such a hassle to reconfigure the machine after reinstalling. I'll probably do it sometime very soon.

Any advice you can give me on formatting the C: drive prior to installation would be great.

Hey! Sure, you can do it whenever you want. On the formatting thing: keep in mind that by formatting, Windows CANNOT find a license anymore. You lose your data too, so if you can't move your installation, I wouldn't recommend. When you are reinstalling Windows, either from the system, making an update or just installing it from USB/DVD/CD-ROM, it creates a windows.old folder where it moves all your C: drive. It can be located in C:\Windows.old. So, to be honest, I wouldn't format the drive :)