Microsoft Store apps keep crashing or freezing in Windows 11/10

Today I’m going to share an experience I had with troubleshooting random UWP application crashes on my Windows PC. I will share what fixes I tried to resolve the crashing issue of Microsoft Store apps. If Microsoft Store apps keep crashing or freezing on your Windows 11/10 computer, you can try these fixes to resolve the problem.

Microsoft Store apps keep crashing or freezing

Below, I have shared my experience. Use these fixes if the Microsoft Store apps keep crashing or freezing on your Windows 11/10 computer.

Temporarily disable your security software
Troubleshoot in a Clean Boot state
Run the System File Checker
Check for Windows Update
Reinstall Microsoft Store
Reset Microsoft Store
Fix Operating System 5 errors

Let’s start.

1] Temporarily disable all security software

In spite of a clean install, Windows Store apps were crashing. So my first hunch was to disable all security software that was running on the machine since it tends to sometimes interfere with Windows applications that are trying to connect to the Internet. This may lead to freezing and crashes of such UWP applications. Sometimes just disabling Internet security software will not fix the problem. We may need to disable it from Startup and stop all the related services and reboot to completely rule out that problem. Sadly that had no effect on the problem.

You can also try this. If this fixes the issue for you, you can contact the support of your security software to get further assistance from their side. If you are using a free antivirus, you can switch to another one.

2] Troubleshoot in Clean Boot State

So my next step was to perform a Clean Boot i.e. disable all non-Microsoft related startup items and reboot the system. This can rule out if any other application is interfering with the Windows 11/10 applications. I used the method described in this post on how to Manage Startup Items to do so. Sadly this didn’t help much. But when you’re troubleshooting App crashes this is an important step to try, even if Clean Boot did not help in this case.

Start your computer in a Clean Boot state and then open the Microsoft Store app that was crashing continuously. Start your computer in a Clean Boot state and then open the Microsoft Store app that was crashing continuously. Now, see if it crashes this time or not. If not, your next step is to identify the culprit third-party background application or service.

3] Run the system file checker

My next step was to run the system file checker to see if any operating system files had been corrupted. Sometimes users tend to use tweaking software or system file patches that could corrupt the core windows files, which can lead to stability issues on Windows.

The SFC scan reported that there weren’t any problems found. This was my case. However, the results can be different in your case. Therefore, I suggest you run the System File Checker and see if it finds any corrupted system image files on your system.

4] Check for Windows Update

I also checked for Windows Update but unfortunately, there was no update available at that time. I suggest you check for Windows Update manually and install the same if available. Windows Updates contain bug fixes and the latest security patches. Hence, installing the Windows Update can help.

5] Reinstall Microsoft Store

Reinstalling the Microsoft Store can also help fix Microsoft Store issues. I suggest you reinstall Microsoft Store by executing the following command in Windows PowerShell as an administrator and see if it helps.

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

6] Reset Microsoft Store

I also tried resetting the Microsoft Store. You should also try this and see if it works. To do this, open Command Prompt as an administrator, type the following command and hit Enter.

wsreset

7] Fix Operating System 5 errors

So I researched the Internet and started reading all the Event logs and app crash dump files. I found something interesting, there are a few Operating System 5 errors; which means that there are some permission issues going on. Seems like the user had messed up the C drive permissions.

I can’t remember how many times I have advised users not to change the permission or any attributes of the root C folder; because that’s where all the boot-related files and all the system files are located.

If you want to change the permission, change a specific folder or file and not the whole C drive. Anyway, I searched online for the appropriate permissions required for the Windows application to run properly. Luckily I found a TechNet article about Managing Client Access to the Microsoft Store. In that article, it’s mentioned-

While configuring the access permissions on any of these resources, it is important to identify which of these resources grants access to all Metro style apps and ensure that the new effective permissions do not remove that access. When supplying the permissions in SDDL form, the security identifier (SID) for ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES is S-1-15-2-1.

So I went and gave “ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES” permission to the root C folder and rebooted the system.

Voilà no more crashes it worked just fine!

This is one of the most interesting and challenging troubleshooting cases I have done in quite some time. It feels really good when you do so successfully.

That’s it. I hope this helps.

How do I fix Microsoft Store glitching?

If you are experiencing problems with the Microsoft Store, like it is not working or closing immediately after opening it, you can try some fixes. To fix Microsoft Store issues, first, check your time and date settings. Make sure that the time and date are correct. If you are using a VPN or Proxy, disable it and check if this helps. You can also try clearing the Microsoft Store cache.

How to clear Microsoft Store cache?

To clear the Microsoft Store cache, you have to reset it. Resetting the Microsoft Store also clears the Microsoft Store cache. To do so, open the Command Prompt as an administrator, type the following command, and hit Enter.

wsreset

As you hit Enter, the above command resets Microsoft Store. AFter this, Microsoft Store will open automatically on your system.

More links to help you:

Well, I hope you guys get some tips from this article. In case you encounter any problems, do let us know.