Forum Discussion
tatianalarina
Nov 01, 2021Copper Contributor
Widgets don't work
I've just installed Windows 11 and it's so annoying. Messenger and WhatsApp apps do not work (that's a topic for another thread) and widgets work only if I disable the display driver and then turn it on again. Which wouldn't be a problem, except that I have to repeat it every single time I start the computer.
- MousefluffIron Contributor
You need this service below to be working at the absolute minimum to be able to install the apps (to run them you also need practically ALL the other apps set up as well, due to many of them being service dependencies / sub-components of another service.) Even if you were only to configure this one service, you need to configure the other services to be able to USE the apps. A lot of people ignore this. You can edit that list as well (based on recommendations on this page and also the default template in the Microsoft Security Compliance Toolkit 1.0, and also your personal needs.)
"AppX Deployment Service (AppXSVC)" -> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/security/windows-services/security-guidelines-for-disabling-system-services-in-windows-server#appx-deployment-service-appxsvc
"Per-user services in Windows 10 and Windows Server" -> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/application-management/per-user-services-in-windows
- tatianalarinaCopper ContributorI ran in Power Shell both scripts you posted, restarting the computer after each of them. Still no luck. As for your last answer, I think you're overrating my computer expertise. Where do I find these services and what should I do with them? I can only tell you that there are two instances of wsappx in my Task Manager and both of them seem to be running fine.
- MousefluffIron Contributor
If you want to actually list the services in powershell, so you can view the settings in the registry editor...
dir "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services" | Format-Table -Property Name
The script just speeds up the process of having to edit a ridiculous amount of keys all at once (it does not restore damaged entries or fix missing service entries.) If you just upgraded, they should already exist in the registry anyways.
I could create a script that refreshes the entire registry hive, but I haven't thought about doing that at this point (would be slow, would have to be quite selective as to not destroy anyone's configuration.) Process protection (PPL) typically is good enough to stop any modification to those keys, unless someone intentionally disables it, along with the ELAM driver (Early Launch Anti-Malware.) It couldn't actually get that bad, unless someone deliberately went in and deleted a lot of critical registry entries and files. It's very difficult to achieve this even with administrator privileges (DISM / SFC can restore it in almost all cases. It's a very lengthy process to disable all the file protection features I mean. It's almost illogical to assume that that's what happened in this case / scenario.)
- MousefluffIron Contributor
This is if you ONLY want to reinstall and reset Widgets and nothing else (in Powershell)
Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope LocalMachine -Force Get-AppxPackage -allusers MicrosoftWindows.Client.WebExperience | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}; Get-AppxPackage -allusers MicrosoftWindows.Client.WebExperience | Reset-AppxPackage;
You can get a full list of the app names using this command...
Get-AppxPackage | Sort Name | Format-Table Name, InstallLocation
"System apps installed with the Windows client OS" -> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/application-management/system-apps-windows-client-os
"Troubleshooting packaging, deployment, and query of Windows apps" -> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/appxpkg/troubleshooting
"Microsoft Store Apps fail to start if default registry or file permissions modified" -> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/shell-experience/microsoft-store-apps-fail-to-start
- tatianalarinaCopper ContributorFor the time being, I want to focus just on fixing widgets. Unfortunately neither of your solutions worked. When I tried the latter, i.e. just reinstall widgets, it seemed to run smoothly, but it didn't do anything. When I tried the former, i.e. resetting all apps, it generated a long error log (I can send it or post it if you want) and still didn't help.
- MousefluffIron Contributor
This *should* work on every consumer-grade SKU for Windows 10 / 11 (although the services need to be cold started like this.) You would have to restart your PC to get full functionality (with services) after executing both Powershell scripts (basically have to copy-paste them.)
./net start EventLog;./net start UsoSvc;./net start wuauserv;./net start AppXSvc;./net start BITS;./net start BFE;./net start MpsSvc; ./net start AppXSvc;./net start AppReadiness;./net start DcpSvc;./net start DevQueryBroker;./net start MapsBroker;./net start lfsvc; ./net start NgcSvc;./net start NcbService;./net start PhoneSvc;./net start ScDeviceEnum;./net start SystemEventsBroker;./net start TimeBrokerSvc; ./net start UserDataSvc;./net start UnistoreSvc;./net start ProfSvc;
- MousefluffIron Contributor
Resetting the apps is faster, but repair will retain the App's data (it's really up to you.)
Reset:
1.) Start Powershell -> Start Menu -> Run -> taskmgr -> File -> Run new Task -> %SystemRoot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -> Select "Create this task with administrative privileges." -> Click OK.
Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope LocalMachine -Force Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}; Get-AppxPackage | Reset-AppxPackage;
Reset / Repair Apps:
1.) Settings -> System -> Other troubleshooters -> Windows Store Apps (Run)
2.) Settings -> Apps -> Default Apps -> Scroll To Bottom (Reset Default Apps)
3.) Settings -> Apps -> Apps & Features -> <Insert App Name Here> -> 3 Verticle Dots On The Right Side Of The Pane -> Advanced Options -> Repair